Owaisi on Bareilly clashes: ‘Why I love Muhammad’ draws ire while ‘I love Modi’ doesn’t?

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday (October 2) remarked that in India, it was easier for someone to say “I love Modi” than to say “I love Muhammad.”

His comments come at a time when Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly remains tense after violence erupted last week during protests over “I Love Muhammad” posters.

Also Read: Owaisi speaks out on Pakistan propaganda, wants country back in FATF grey list

Owaisi questions double standards

Internet services were suspended across four districts in the Bareilly division, and heavy security was deployed on Thursday in view of Dussehra celebrations and the upcoming Friday (October 3) prayers.

Amid the unrest, Owaisi questioned why saying "I love Muhammad" draws objections while "I love Modi" does not, but at the same time urged people not to take the law into their own hands.

“In this country, one can say ‘I love Modi’ but not ‘I love Mohammad.’ Where are you taking this nation? If someone says ‘I love Modi,’ the media welcomes it. But when someone says ‘I love Mohammad,’ it is opposed. If I am a Muslim, it is because of Muhammad,” Owaisi said in Hyderabad.

Owaisi urges lawful restraint

He also referred to video clips that allegedly show police lathi-charging protesters while some shopkeepers shower flowers on the force. Owaisi stressed that the police remain answerable only to those in power. “They will beat you tomorrow when the power shifts,” he added.

Pointing out that Prophet Muhammad is the only one ever named Muhammad, Owaisi said, “If you install his posters, you must respect them. I want to ask the government why so many laws are being made, and what is happening?”

Urging calm, Owaisi said, “We must respond with patience. Everything must be done within the law. Don’t take the law into your own hands. Once you act within the law, you will realise the law is nothing more than a spider’s web.”

Also Read: Owaisi takes ‘tubelights’ dig at BJP MPs as Opposition slams remarks on SC

'I love Muhammad' row

The unrest in Bareilly began on September 26 when nearly 2,000 people clashed with police outside a mosque in the Kotwali area after Friday prayers. The unrest was triggered by the cancellation of a protest over the "I Love Muhammad" poster row called by cleric Tauqeer Raza Khan,

That dispute stemmed from an FIR registered in Kanpur on September 9 against the installation of “I Love Muhammad” boards on a public road during a Barawafat procession.

Owaisi had earlier questioned the controversy in Kanpur, asking what was “anti-national” about the posters. “If there is an ‘I Love Mahadev’ group, then what’s the problem? What is anti-national here? Where is the violence in this? The word is ‘love,’ so why object to it?” he said during a speech in Bihar’s Purnea last week.

He also reminded that a Muslim’s faith is incomplete without loving Prophet Muhammad above everything else. “What message are you sending to the world by objecting to this?” he asked.

Meanwhile, the senior cleric of Bareilly’s Ala Hazrat Dargah has appealed to Muslims to return home peacefully after Friday prayers. Security has been tightened with PAC and RAF personnel deployed and drones monitoring the situation as tensions continue in Bareilly.