“A few weeks ago a video was sent to me regarding the issue of diapers. Today I checked the Pampers diapers to discover that Prophet Mohammad’s name was blatantly inscribed on the pads. This is an insult to the community and to Allah. These pads and the company needs to be boycotted,” Bhopali said.
The video of the incident has been making rounds on social media. However, the original source of the video could not be independently verified by OpIndia.
The video has sparked outrage among the community on social media claiming that the company is causing insult to the Prophet by inscribing his name erroneously on the diapers. The community claimed that the company had engaged in an alleged ‘blasphemous’ act and that their products needed to be boycotted.
Another similar video of Islamists criticizing Pampers diapers went viral over the internet in which one of the Muslims could be seen burning the diapers. The old video from the year 2018 was shared by the News Now media house last month which claimed that the video was from Jammu and Kashmir.
The man in the video could be seen yelling against the company and burning the diapers. “We were told that Prophet Mohammad’s name was inscribed on the diapers. Initially, we didn’t believe in the video. We thought that it could be a social media message. But we checked the diapers for ourselves to discover that the company had insulted Islam,” he said.
He further asked all the Muslims to check the products before putting them to use and warned that the insult of the Prophet should not be tolerated. The video was exclusively shared by J&K-based News Now media house. While it claimed that the video was recent from the month of November 2024, OpIndia found out that it was an old video from the year 2018.
In the protest video that had gone viral over the internet then, one of the persons could be heard saying that initially they dismissed the story as a social media rumor but were convinced after personally checking the diapers in the market. Later a few people could be seen putting a few Pampers packets on the ground and then setting them ablaze. While the diapers were burning a person could be heard chanting ‘Musa, Musa, Zakir Musa’.
🆘‼😂💦 #India: Ouch! #Muslims burn piles of #Pampers nappies and call for a ban because cartoon cat's whiskers printed on them "look like the Arabic spelling of #Mohammed." https://t.co/h4zjuQDd7R Oh my goodness, first the socks, now pampers. pic.twitter.com/QH58Gdgusx
— Onlinemagazin Ⓥ (@OnlineMagazin) February 21, 2018
Notably, this is not the first time that Islamists have raised their voices to boycott Pampers baby diapers claiming alleged ‘blasphemy’. In the year 2018, a similar incident was reported when a few Muslims in Hyderabad took offence to Pampers diapers claiming an alleged insult to their Prophet Mohammed. As per reports, the Islamists claimed that the image of a cartoon cat on the diapers caused an insult to Mohammad’s name as it allegedly replicated his name in Arabic. The image of a cat’s nose, mouth, whiskers, and left eye on the diaper is allegedly similar to the spelling of Prophet Mohammed’s name in Arabic.

The Islamists then raised their voices and demanded a boycott of the Pampers diapers. The Islamists lodged a formal complaint with Dabeerpura Police Station in Hyderabad and claimed that the brand of US multinational Procter & Gamble, had hurt the feelings of the Muslims.

As reported earlier, any sort of depiction of Prophet Mohammad draws fierce pushback from Muslims around the world. As per contemporary interpretation of Islam, the pictorial representation of Prophet Muhammad is an anathema, something that is strictly prohibited and even regarded as ‘blasphemy’.
The textbook definition of blasphemy states that it is an action or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things. But for an overwhelming section of Muslims across the globe, any attempt at the portrayal of their beloved Prophet, including well-meaning ones, comes under the purview of blasphemy, which attracts capital punishment, according to Islamic texts. Therefore, any attempt made to depict Prophet Mohammad inevitably leads to staunch criticism and calls for the beheading of the person responsible for committing such an “effrontery”.
It is crucial to note that after the recently claimed Bhopal video, several old videos revolving around Pampers diapers are being reshared on social media with an alleged intent to provoke the Islamist community to take action against the alleged ‘blasphemous’ acts. This is concerning and a threat to the communal peace of the country. The incident also portrays the radicalized mindset of the Islamists who claim that visualizing Prophet Muhammad is against the laws, and hence worthy of capital punishment.
A spokesman for Pampers’ owner Procter & Gamble had commented on the matter in the year 2018 and said that the information being spread against the company was false and misleading. “The design on the Pampers Baby Dry Pants shows an innocent animated representation of a cat. It shows a cat’s mouth and whiskers like it is commonly portrayed in drawings and cartoons across the world, especially by little children. The intent behind the use of this cartoon is completely innocent and we would never intend to offend any person, religion, or cultural belief,” he had said.
While the recent video from Bhopal is still making rounds on social media, it could not be independently verified by OpIndia