Indian right-arm fast pacer Mohammed Siraj shared a picture of his recent sacred journey to Saudi Arabia’s Makkah to perform Umrah.
The Hyderabadi bowler posted a touching photo of himself on his social media platform where he is seen dressed in a traditional Ihram attire in front of the Kaaba. He posted the image with the caption “Alhamdulillah” (praise be to God).
However, among well-wishers and fans showering and blessing him with love, a disturbing wave of hate and communal trolling emerged under his post.
Hindutva trolls target Siraj
Mohammed Siraj’s image quickly garnered significant attention with 1.8 million users reacting by liking and engaging in comments.
However, he also faced online harassment and inflexing hate from right-wing accounts who dropped communal laced comments and phrases like “Katmullha” (circumcised), “Mullha“, calling him a “superstitious practitioner.”
Some right-wing trolls also expressed their opposition to his religious trip by commenting “Jai Shri Ram” which means glory to Lord Ram, traditionally a symbol of devotion and faith in the Hindu religion.
Mohammed Siraj’s spiritual break comes at a time when he is grappling with professional setbacks and challenges in his cricketing career. The 30-year-old was excluded from India’s 15-member squad for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025, shocking many. Not just this, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) also released him ahead of IPL 2025.
Mohammed Siraj, not a stranger to hate
Mohammed Siraj is no stranger to online communal hate having faced the wrath of Hindutva workers often targetting him solely based on his religion.
In May 2024, Siraj was forced to delete his “All Eyes on Rafah” post from social media platforms where he expressed his solidarity with Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes. His post was shared by right-wing users calling him a “sympathizer of Hamas terrorists.”
In June 2024, when India won the ICC World Cup, the Hyderabadi cricketer was trolled after he shared a photograph of the team lifting the cup and wrote “Thank you almighty Allah.”
Right-wing accounts were quick to reply, “If Allah had to do this, then Pakistan would have won the World Cup, not India.”
In September 2023, India lifted the Asia Cup after five years and fans applauded the performance of Mohammed Siraj for his magical spell of seam and swing bowling with magnificent figures of 6 for 21. However, he received online hate from right-wing trolls on social media for his religious identity. The radical outfit members praised Siraj’s bowling rhetorically stating he had got the fast-bowlling training from stone-pelters.
Mohammed Siraj is not alone
Mohammed Siraj is not the only Indian Muslim cricketer to face online hate and abuse. On October 25, 2021, fast bowler Mohammed Shami was subjected to a wave of online abuse from right-wing trolls right after India lost a T20 World Cup match to Pakistan. Shami and Arshdeep Singh were singled out from the rest of the team and were called a ‘Pakistani agent’ and ‘Khalistani’ respectively.
Rise in online abuse towards Indian Muslims
Last year, a recent report ‘Behind The Pixels: Social Silencing and Isolation of Indian Muslims in the Online Public’ stated that the rate of online abuse faced by Muslims has meteorically risen in the last ten years.
The report was based on 18 interviews from six Indian states, including women and men between the age groups of 20s and 50s and four group discussions.
The report stated that while Muslim men face online abuse targeting their mothers and sisters, Muslim women in most cases face rapes and death threats. Abuses range from threats of marrying a Kashmiri woman after the abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir to women leading the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which is now a law and calling Muslim men incompetent.
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