Muslim journalist arrested for insulting Hindus in India

• Mohammed Zubair is co-founder of Alt News that exposes false information in the Indian media.
• He was detained by Delhi police on suspicion of defaming religious beliefs on social media.
• His detention backs claims that BJP is employing laws from the colonial era to stifle criticism.

A well-known Muslim journalist has been detained by Delhi police on suspicion of defaming religious beliefs on social media; this action has been denounced by proponents of free expression.

According to KPS Malhotra, a deputy commissioner in Delhi’s Cyber Crime Unit, Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of the fact-checking website Alt News that exposes false information in the Indian media, was detained on Monday and held overnight in police custody.

According to Malhotra, Zubair was detained in accordance with two Indian Penal Code provisions pertaining to upholding religious harmony.

Zubair frequently criticises Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) via Twitter for what he and other detractors allege is an assault on the rights of the nation’s approximately 200 million Muslims.

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His detention coincides with repeated claims from detractors that the BJP is employing laws from the colonial past to stifle all forms of criticism and promote self-censorship.

The journalist, whose social media posts were the subject of a criminal probe in 2020 for which the Delhi High Court had earlier granted him protection from arrest, according to Zubair’s attorney, Kawalpreet Kaur. She claimed that when he attended to the summons, police detained him in connection with an other case.

In a police report, a Twitter user accused Zubair of demeaning Hindus in a tweet about renaming a hotel after a Hindu deity in 2018. Kaur revealed the police report to CNN.

She claimed that the authorities failed to notify Zubair and violated protocol.

When CNN questioned Malhotra, the deputy commissioner, about whether the arrest had been legal or not, he remained silent.

Zubair had blasted Nupur Sharma, the BJP’s national spokeswoman who has since been dismissed, earlier this month for making disparaging remarks against Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, which sparked a diplomatic spat. At least 15 countries with a majority of Muslims denounced Sharma’s comments, with some of them recalling India’s diplomats and labelling them as “Islamophobic.”

Videos that Zubair alleges depict Hindu radicals making hate speeches against Islam, a minority faith in India where over 80% of the population practises Hinduism, are posted on social media recently.

Politicians, journalists, and news organisations have all expressed indignation over Zubair’s imprisonment and urged that he be released.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Editors Guild of India stated that it was “clear that those who use disinformation as a tool to polarise society and stir nationalist feelings were resentful of Alt News’ keen vigilance.”

The arrest, according to Congress party member Shashi Tharoor, was a “attack on truth.”

In India’s post-truth political climate, which is replete with misinformation, “India’s few fact-checking services, especially Alt News, serve a critical service,” Tharoor wrote on Twitter on Monday. “They disprove lies, whoever is spreading them. Arresting (Zubair) would be an attack on the truth. He needs to be released right away.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists demanded that Zubair be “immediately and unconditionally released” and that “harassment of him in reprisal for his work” stop on Monday.

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