Muslims, particularly Islamists, have their loyalties devoted to foreign Islamic leaders and countries. Not too long ago, when Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint Israel-US military operation, Indian Muslims, particularly Shia Muslims, came out on the streets to mourn his death. Many even expressed readiness to go to Iran and fight against Israel and the US forces to avenge Khamenei. In a fresh demonstration of this transnational Islamic loyalty, Indian Islamists are dog-whistling to Iran’s Embassy in India to take ‘action’ against a stand-up comedian, Ankit Agnihotri, over jokes about Indian Muslims raising ‘Har ghar se Ayatollah niklega’ slogans after the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei.
During a stand-up comedy act in early October 2026, Ankit Agnihotri cracked jokes about a section of Muslims declaring earlier that every house will produce a Khamenei, and raising “Har ghar se Khamenei niklega” slogans.
A person named Rizwan Haider, who claims to be a journalist, also tagged the Iranian Embassy in India and Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and urged them to take ‘appropriate action’ against Ankit Agnihotri.
“@Iran_in_India @DrSJaishankar An individual has publicly mocked and insulted Shaheed Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. This is deeply disrespectful and should not be ignored. Please look into this matter, conduct an inquiry, and take appropriate action under the law,” Haider wrote.
Another Islamist, Harun Khan, wrote, ” Ankit Agnihotri mocked kill*ng of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei by Israel in his stand-up show and said: – Khamenei was kill*d and there was an uproar across Lucknow. – People said Khamenei would be born in every house. – Lucknow has three puncture repair shops in every lane. – Khamenei e-rickshaw puncture wala. – Khamenei Honda City puncture wala. – Khamenei Halala Centre.”
Meanwhile, the notorious Islamist victimhood peddler Muslim IT Cell tagged the Embassy of Iran in India and wrote, ” Meet Ankit Agnihotri, a poor or unemployed Hindutva bigot from Lucknow, Yogi Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh. He used a comedy stage to demean Indian Muslims, especially muslim women, while celebrating the killing of Iran’s Khamenei by terrorist state Israel. If Muslims are targeted with slurs, their dignity mocked, and violence celebrated for applause, call it what it is: Not comedy. Just hate dressed up as a joke. And this is nothing but a cheap attempt to become famous by manufacturing controversy at the expense of Muslims or Iranian supreme leader.
Meanwhile, the All-India Jammu and Kashmir Shia Association also jumped on the bandwagon. The Association wrote, ” Strongly condemn the video by Ankit Agnihotri using derogatory, objectionable remarks against G,rand Ayatoll,ah Sayyid Ali Khamenei. Such rhetoric risks communal harmony. Urging @lucknowpolice to take strict cognizance & initiate legal action.”
Another Islamist handle “The Muslim” declared Ankit Agnihotri a ‘Hindutva activist’ and wrote, ” There are puncture repair shops in every three lanes of Lucknow. He will name his shop? Khamnei E-Rickshaw – Honda City Puncture Walla Khamnei H@lala Center Ankit Agnihotri, a prominent Hindutva activist from Lucknow, made derogatory remarks against Indian Muslim men and women during his comedy show, celebrating the killing of Khamnei by Israel.”
Meanwhile, Ankit Agnihotri’s Instagram page is flooded with Islamist abuses, threats, and calls to the Iranian consulate to initiate action against him.
Islamist pattern of weaponising social media to target Hindus
After street demonstrations in solidarity with Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, giving donations to Iran, now a section of Indian Muslims is expressing its reverence and loyalty towards a slain foreign Islamic leader by exposing a fellow Hindu citizen to threats of all forms.
OpIndia has often reported how Islamists have their loyalties exported to foreign countries and leaders. This misplaced loyalty often reflects in the unapologetic expression of support and solidarity for countries staging agitations based on religion, even indulging in undermining India’s foreign policy and national security.
It is a known fact that while the Indian government maintains a balanced stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Indian Muslims and their leftist allies, do not shy away from advocating Israel’s total annihilation, stage ‘Free Palestine’ protests and indulge in various theatrics, including boycott of Israeli companies, or brands that have any relations with Israel.
In March this year, OpIndia reported how Indian Islamists were targeting the India-Israel joint Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India drones manufacturing factory in Hyderabad. Several Muslim social media influencers even shared the location of the factory.
Several Islamists published posts and made emotional videos, peddling disinformation that the Hyderabad factory of the Adani-Elbit joint venture was enabling the Israeli ‘aggression’, first in Gaza, and later in Iran, by supplying Hermes 900 UAV drones to Israel. This was a concerted effort to trigger a boycott against India from Islamic countries by painting India as the ‘enabler’ of Israel’s wars.
Why? What was driving Indian Muslims to spread anti-India hate, even though they live in India and defence manufacturing keeps their own homeland safe from external threats? It is their religious loyalty towards the Muslim Ummah, their co-religionists, both of which hold much more significance for Islamists than their country, fellow non-Muslim citizens, or loyalty towards their country.
India witnessed how, after the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei in Israeli strikes, protests by Shia Muslims erupted in Lucknow, Jammu and Kashmir, Kargil, and other areas. Many even expressed willingness to go to war-torn Iran and fight Israel and America for Khamenei, while most never even condemned the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
There have been numerous cases wherein a significant section of Indian Muslims has dog-whistled against non-Muslim Indians over alleged offence to their religious sentiments.
The pattern of dog-whistling is akin to what was seen during the Nupur Sharma ‘blasphemy’ episode back in 2022. Alt News propagandist Mohammed Zubair and other Islamists had dog-whistled against the former BJP spokesperson for quoting a Quranic fact through a trimmed clip of her statement and publicized it with Arabic translations. In no time, ‘Sar tan se Juda’ calls began to be made by rioting Muslim mobs across the country, with outrage spilling over to Gulf nations.
The Islamist act of provocation painted a target on the backs of not only Nupur Sharma but also ordinary citizens like Kanhaiya Lal and Umesh Kolhe, who expressed solidarity with her. Separately, both the Hindu men were brutally killed by Muslim jihadis. Since then, Nupur Sharma has been living under protection while the Muslim politician Taslim Rehmani, who made highly derogatory remarks about Hindu deities, continues to participate in debates and lives freely.
A neathe r-redux of the Nupur Sharma episode was seen in 2025 when Sharmishta Panoli, a law student from Symbiosis Law School in Pune was hounded by Indian Islamists with ‘ Gustakhe Nabi ki ek saza, Sar tan se juda’ threats over an Instagram video against Pakistan, which ended up offending Indian Muslims over certain remarks about Islamic prophet, Muhammad. The Islamist outrage and calls for Panoli’s beheading continued even as she had promptly deleted her video and tendered an unconditional apology.
Islamists are often joined by their Leftist non-Muslim allies in enabling and bolstering Islamist zeal for making Kafirs suffer for perceived religious insults.
In 2018, Indian-born British celebrity chef Atul Kochhar posted a tweet criticising Priyanka Chopra and her American television show “Quantico” over a deeply anti-Hindu storyline. The episode showed Rudraksha wearing Indian nationalists plotting to detonate a nuclear bomb in Manhattan before framing Pakistan for the attack.
Kochhar expressed his displeasure with the portrayal and argued that, contrary to the show’s depiction, Hindus had themselves faced centuries of violence and persecution at the hands of Islamist forces. This prompted a wave of attacks from the usual suspects, after which he removed the tweet and issued an apology.
In 2023, the Kuwaiti government deported two nurses from Kerala over social media posts expressing support for Israel after Hamas attacked the country.
In 2020, several Indians endured similar action over content that was deemed blasphemous, resulting in job loss, legal action, and even deportation. One such case involved Rakesh B. Kitturmath, a Hindu man from Ranebennur in Karnataka. He was a team leader at Emrill Services, an integrated facilities management company headquartered in Dubai, at the time.
Kitturmath was targeted over TikTok comments criticising Muslims who claimed that offering namaz five times a day was enough to protect against the coronavirus. He was immediately terminated from his job and faced jail time.
Some Indian Islamists had even d compiled a list of purported “Hindutva terrorists” for intimidation by demanding the same action against them based on false allegations, and they also succeeded in their nefarious agenda.
In another case, a Hindu man named Balakrishna Nakka was sacked from his job in Dubai for sharing memes on Facebook mocking the Taliban and Tablighi Jamaat. The Islamists insisted that the “Islamophobic” cartoons showed Muslims as suicide bombers and coronavirus carriers as part of a conspiracy.
Akin to the demands in Ankit Agnihotri’s case, Islamists had, in one case, demanded police action against an Indian in Oman for posting against Jamia Millia Islamia University.
It is essential to note that this Islamist pattern of snitching on Hindus or other non-Muslim friends, colleagues or fellow citizens over supposed religious hurt, is seen among not only Indian but Muslims across the world.
After the 2019 Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, three Sri Lankan security personnel working at a high-end hotel in Palm Jumeirah were accused by Pakistani Muslim employees of insulting Islam
In 2015, an Indian man was booked for “insulting Islam” in Dubai due to a Facebook post regarding the growing carnage in Iraq as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) swept over the nation.
More recently, a Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu migrant worker, Anojan Sivarasa, is facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia in an alleged blasphemy case that began with a Facebook comment. The Al-Ahsa Criminal Court had initially sentenced him to five years in prison and imposed a fine of three million Saudi riyals. Now reports have emerged that Anojan was brutally assaulted by inmates.
The issue began over a video showing a Muslim man kicking a stray dog that had accompanied Hindu pilgrims during the annual Pada Yatra pilgrimage to Kataragama in Sri Lanka. A comment Anojan posted during the online exchanges subsequently became the basis of the criminal case against him.
While exercising greater sensitivity when speaking about faith and avoid making inflammatory or offensive remarks is not too much to ask for, hounding people over jokes on foreign religious leaders is alarming and can also pose a serious threat to local law and order, potentially jeopardising national security.
