News24 | Muslims in India face crackdown on public Eid prayers amid threats
Muslims in India face restrictions in offering public Eid prayers.Right-wing Hindu groups have been protesting Muslims offering public prayers on Fridays.But Muslims argue that many mosques cannot accommodate all the worshippers during mass congregations.The mood is barely festive as a group of Muslim men huddle inside a small mosque to discuss the arrangements for Eid al-Adha prayers in Meerut district of India’s Uttar Pradesh state.Ceiling fans hum above to beat the brutal north Indian heat as nearly 50 worshippers listen to the members of the mosque management committee in Maliyana village, about 80km from New Delhi, the national capital.The conversation is not about sacrificial animals or charity, but a more pressing issue before them: Roads, barricades, police permissions, and where and how exactly they would offer the Eid prayers on Thursday.“Please don’t gather outside the mosque gates,” instructs a member. “If the mosque fills up, wait for the next prayer shift. Avoid arguments. Avoid videos. Don’t respond to provocations.”READ | Indian PM Modi says he does not oppose Islam, Muslims as election campaign heats upMen in the audience silently nod. Some scroll through WhatsApp groups where local police advisories have already begun circulating, urging Muslims to refrain from public prayers.Others in the audience exchange worried glances.Maliyana has a history. In May 1987, 72 Muslims were massacred here by a mob of Hindu locals and personnel belonging to the state government’s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC). After 36 years of hearings, a district court in 2023 acquitted dozens of the accused over insufficient evidence.But the concerns that prompted the mosque committee and worshippers there to review their Eid plans are more recent.For more than a decade now, right-wing Hindu groups, emboldened by the election of Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi as India’s prime minister in 2014, have been protesting against Muslims offering public prayers on Fridays and festivals against alleged traffic and security concerns.These groups, and even politicians from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have disrupted namaz on roads, parks or vacant plots of land. Viral videos showing Muslims praying in open areas have sparked outrage and online campaigns, prompting the authorities, in some cases, to withdraw permissions granted to Muslims to offer namaz prayers at such sites.Last week, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a prominent far-right Hindu group aligned with the BJP, demanded a complete nationwide ban on namaz on roads, calling the practice a “show of strength” by the community.But Muslims argue that a crackdown on public prayers ignores a practical reality: Many mosques and designated grounds for Eid prayers (called “Eidgahs”) cannot accommodate all the worshippers during mass congregations on Fridays or Eid, especially in densely populated urban areas.A day before Eid al-Adha, the central question before Muslims is whether they will be allowed to pray peacefully, without attracting scrutiny, confrontation, or public hostility, particularly in BJP-governed Uttar Pradesh, a state almost as populous as neighbouring Pakistan and home to nearly 39 million Muslims, more than the population of Saudi Arabia.The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, led since 2017 by Yogi Adityanath, a saffron-clad hardline Hindu monk known for his vitriol against Muslims, has intensified crackdowns on Muslim prayers on roads and open spaces.On 18 May, Adityanath said Muslims should offer Eid al-Adha prayers “in shifts”.“Pyaar se maanenge theek hai, nahi maanenge to doosra tareeqa apnayenge … (If they agree peacefully, that is good; if not, we will adopt another method),” he posted on X.To the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh, the threat of Adityanath’s “another method” is not unfamiliar.“Last year, people were booked for praying in open spaces. In some places, homes were demolished and there were even reports of driving licences and passport verifications being cancelled. After seeing all this, people are naturally scared,” a Muslim man in Meerut told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity since he feared reprisal from the authorities.Arif Malik, a shopkeeper in Aligarh district, about 130km from New Delhi, said that on Eid al-Adha last year, Muslims in his neighbourhood “offered namaz for barely a few minutes in an open ground, but police chased the worshippers afterward”.“This Eid, families are telling people to avoid any crowd,” he told Al Jazeera.Muslims in Uttar Pradesh say the curbs on Eid prayers are creating an atmosphere in which even routine religious gatherings are increasingly treated as security concerns.In several towns across the state, mosque committees are quietly recalibrating Eid arrangements. Some are reducing the size of congregations. Others are asking worshippers to arrive in smaller groups or disperse quickly after prayers.Community volunteers are being assigned to ensure people do not spill onto nearby roads, even briefly.“For many Muslims, the concern is no longer only about where Eid prayers will be offered, but whether gathering publicly as a religious community is increasingly being viewed with suspicion,” said 42-year-old Mohammad Arif, a mosque committee member in Meerut who has been organising Eid prayers for nearly two decades.Arif said the mosque committees in several Uttar Pradesh towns have held meetings about crowd management and ways to avoid confrontation with the authorities.“People are thinking carefully about visibility, movement and even where to place their prayer mats,” he said.“We are scared of even making a small mistake,” Arshad, a 33-year-old shopkeeper in Meerut who only shared his first name, told Al Jazeera.“Earlier, Eid mornings felt joyful. Now there is tension from the night before. People keep checking whether police will come or whether someone will record videos and upload them online.”Mosque committees have begun coordinating directly with local police before Eid to avoid confrontation. Volunteers are being instructed to monitor entry points, prevent crowding, and quickly disperse worshippers after prayers end.While the government frames the restrictive measures around Muslim festivals as necessary for traffic management and public order, it has also not just allowed, but also facilitated large Hindu religious processions and celebrations with traffic diversions, police protection, and public infrastructural support.
