On Tuesday (23rd January), vlogger from Kerala Shihab Chottur shared a post of apology from his Facebook account after Islamists forced him to delete his social media posts thanking PM Narendra Modi. The vlogger had thanked PM Modi for liking a photograph he had posted where he was seen with two kids dressed as Lord Ram and Goddess Sita. However, he came under vicious attack from Islamists for the same, and he was forced to delete his post.
Notably, Shihab Chottur made it to the news in 2023 when he walked from Malappuram in Kerala to Mecca for Haj, taking just over a year.
On 23 January, a day after Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha in Ayodhya, an image of Shihab Chottur with a boy and a girl dressed as Ram and Sita was shared by several users on Facebook recently. The photo was posted by Chottur on his Facebook account in October 2022, and was taken during his visit to North India at that time. He had captioned the photo with “With Aafiya Students”.
Many people re-shared the photo recently after the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Mandir to mark the event. The image was noticed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after someone on Facebook tagged him in a comment, and then the PM liked the image on Facebook.
The vlogger noted this and thanked PM Modi for liking his photo in another post. He also shared a screenshot showing PM Modi liking his earlier post, along with the original photo and some other photos taken during his North India visit in 2022.
In his post thanking the Prime Minister, Shihab Chottur wrote, “Thanks Modi Sir. I am proud to be an Indian Musalman.” However, he faced severe backlash from a large number of Islamists on social media for this. He has 7.71 lakh followers. Many of them and several others ridiculed him for thanking Narendra Modi.
Islamists linked this with the consecration ceremony of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya which took place just a day before the post that is on Monday (22nd January). The Islamists claimed that the vlogger was supporting the Ram Mandir with his Facebook posts. Notably, the Pran Pratishtha was done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Many people also questioned his walk to Mecca, asking what was the need for it when he could have visited the Islamic holy place using regular modes of transport. Some others suggested that he could have walked to Ayodhya instead.
As a result of such relentless attack and abuse, Shihab Chottur deleted his post thanking PM Modi.
He then wrote a post of apology on Facebook. In this post, he said, “The other day, the prime minister had liked my post of an event held. It went viral when many national celebrities shared it. I was surprised that the PM of the country liked the post of a common man like me. So a little while ago, I posted it to thank him. It has nothing to do with the Ayodhya issue.”
Shihab Chottur further said in his post, “Moreover, I will never surrender to fascism. However, social media reacts in such a way that we don’t even imagine. Many people react without knowing this truth. Leave it to Allah. As someone who loves the beloved Prophet, I do not support fascism. I am sorry for the misleading post and I apologize to everyone who loves me.”
On his way to Mecca on foot, Shihab Chottur covered 8,640 km through Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He hails from Valanchery in Malappuram district. He started his trek to perform Haj on 2nd June 2022, and reached Mecca in June 2023, taking around 370 days. Shihab walked through several Indian states before reaching the Wagha border to enter Pakistan. In February 2023, he managed to get a transit visa and entered Pakistan to resume the journey and reach his destination four months later.