Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan has not extended his wishes for Ganesh Chaturthi this year. This comes after years of being attacked by Islamists who attacked him for celebrating the Hindu festival with his family. In the past, Shah Rukh Khan has very publicly posted his wishes on Ganesh Chaturthi. However, Islamists would attack him that being a Muslim, he should not be praying to Hindu deities and how he should be afraid of judgement day.
In 2018, he had shared an image of his son, AbRam, praying before a Ganesh idol.
He was abused and accused of not being a ‘true Muslim’ for ‘believing’ in anyone else but Allah.
His Tweet wishing on Ganesh Chaturthi also drew ire back then.
One Twitter user had back then thanked Mohammad Ali Jinnah for creating Pakistan as the Indian Muslims as he implied that Indian Muslims have to pray to Hindu gods to ‘make Indian government happy’.
After that, in 2019, too, he was attacked for wishing on Ganesh Chaturthi.
Even on Twitter he was abused for celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi.
He was accused of celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi for having a Hindu wife.
Some even cancelled his Muslim credentials for worshiping Lord Ganesh.
More hate was directed towards him for celebrating the Hindu festival.
In 2020, when Shah Rukh Khan posted his wishes for Ganesh Chaturthi, the Ganesh idol was replaced by his own picture. He extended his wishes, but instead of sharing the images of the idol from him home, he shared his own picture.
But since he wished for a Hindu festival and was also sporting a Tilak, he was again attacked for celebrating Hindu festival.
Islamists called him ‘shirk’ for celebrating the Ganeshotsav. In Islam, ‘shirk’ is the ‘sin’ of idol worship.
Shah Rukh Khan has been quite regularly sharing wishes for various festivals. He has shared images of his son AbRam wearing a Santa cap for Christmas and even wished for Dussehra along with Islamic festivals like Eid. However, he and his family have been consistently trolled and attacked for celebrating Hindu festivals.
This year, Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan and his wife Kareena Kapoor Khan were also abused and attacked by Islamists for praying to Lord Ganesha along with their son Taimur. They were called Kaafir (derogatory term for those who do not practice Islam) and other abuses were hurled at them. In 2019, Saif’s daughter with his first wife Amrita Singh, actress Sara Ali Khan, was also subjected to abuse and had her Muslim credentials cancelled for celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi.
In the past, many Muslim celebrities have been abused by Islamists just for wishing on Hindu festivals. Popular Bengali actress and a TMC MP from West Bengal, Nusrat Jahan was insulted on Facebook for celebrating Durga Puja as it was ‘inappropriate’. Cricketer Mohammad Kaif has been regularly trolled by Muslim fundamentalists for celebrating Christmas and condemned for performing the Surya Namaskar. He was also declared a bad Muslim by Islamists for celebrating his daughter’s birthday.
Another cricketer Irfan Pathan was told by fundamentalists that Raksha Bandhan is ‘against Islam’ and abused when he wished everyone on a special day.
Considering the precedence and the abuses from radical fundamentalists the celebrities have to face for wishing and celebrating Hindu festivals, perhaps Shah Rukh Khan and his family thought it was prudent to celebrate the Ganesh Chaturthi in the privacy of their homes and save themselves from the insults they are subjected to by people with Talibani mindset.