FIRs, Arrests, Bulldozer Action: The Crackdown Over ‘I Love Muhammad’ Posters
Faith, fear, bulldozer: FIRs, 100 arrests, and shops sealed across India over ‘I Love Muhammad’ posters.
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“इश्क़ हो जाये किसी से कोई चारा तो नहीं,सिर्फ मुस्लिम का मुहम्मद पे इजारा तो नहीं.” (If one falls in love, there’s no choice in it — and the love for Muhammad is not the Muslim’s monopoly alone.)
If poet and civil servant Kunwar Mahendra Singh Bedi ‘Sahar’ were alive today, these lines might have landed him behind bars. Because in present-day India, putting up ‘I Love Muhammad’ posters, stickers, or banners has triggered over 2,000 FIRs and more than 100 arrests across states. In several cases, homes and shops have been demolished, marking a return of what many call bulldozer injustice.
This report asks three core questions:
How did the ‘I Love Muhammad’ controversy begin?
Is an entire community being targeted under its pretext?
Who benefits from the hate built around these slogans?
How It Began
The controversy began in Uttar Pradesh's, Kanpur on 4 September 2025, during Eid Milad-un-Nabi, Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Residents of Rawatpur and Saiyad Nagar installed light boards and posters reading “I Love Muhammad.” Some objected, saying such boards were never put up before.
DCP (West) Dinesh Tripathi said, “People put up a tent and banner at a non-traditional spot. One side opposed it, so the banner was shifted by mutual consent.”
But local Imam, Shabnoor Alam told The Quint, “No tent was installed, no religious poster was torn. The FIR is fake and baseless.”
Despite police claims that the FIR wasn’t over the poster, it mentions the “new practice” of I Love Muhammad boards. The message was clear to many Muslims: writing 'I Love Muhammad' could get you booked.
Faith Meets Force
In Bareilly, cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan called for a peaceful memorandum against the FIRs.
Instead, police cracked down — 10 FIRs and 73 arrests by 30 September 2025, according to SSP Anurag Arya.
Among those arrested was Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan himself.
When Muslims gathered outside mosques holding “I Love Muhammad” posters, police fired tear gas and lathi-charged the crowd. Several were injured. Later, Bareilly Nagar Nigam sealed 38 shops near Novelty Chowk, mostly belonging to Muslims, calling them illegal constructions.
Posters, Police, and Punishment
The police narrative remains that “posters were torn, processions turned violent.”
But in Muzaffarnagar, no protests happened — only printing and putting up “I Love Muhammad” posters. Yet arrests followed. Even the computer and printer used for making posters were seized. Police argued it was to prevent “rumours and unrest.”
In Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, a man named H.K. Patel responded by posting “I Love Mahadev” on WhatsApp, using communal slurs against Muslims. Violence followed, with 70 people arrested but videos from Gujarat show police breaking into homes and beating residents, some allegedly uninvolved.
The Bigger Game
Once again, after protests, bulldozers followed Muslims. The state’s message is clear: dissent equals demolition.
The arrests and FIRs show a pattern — turning faith into a trigger, devotion into a criminal act.
In the end, Maulana Sajjad Nomani of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board summed it up:
“If you love your wife, you don’t write it on walls. Show your love through actions. Don’t fall into the trap — someone wants to provoke you, and you’re walking right in.”
The “I Love Muhammad” controversy isn’t just about a slogan.
It’s about who gets to love publicly — and who pays a price for it.