There has been a renewed intensification of violence and hate propaganda directed against Muslims. Not that it had ever really stopped. It would be difficult to think about a period during the last 12 years that could honestly be described as free from anti-Muslim hatred and violence. Yet, there are moments when this hostility gathers itself into something like a storm. For the past two weeks, gangs of men and women, all Hindu, have been moving openly through parts of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, raising slogans that call for the annihilation of Muslims. The administration appears to have decided that this is merely the natural expression of Hindu anger and has therefore chosen to look away. Hindu YouTubers have multiplied like an epidemic. They travel from one locality to another, manufacturing and circulating hatred against Muslims. They stop Muslims in the streets, force conversations upon them, provoke them, and often assault them. Madrasas are being sealed. Notices are being issued for the demolition of Muslim homes.The murder of a Hindu teenager in Ghaziabad by a Muslim teenager has now become the latest occasion or excuse for a fresh campaign of hostility against Muslims. The accused, a boy named Asad, was promptly killed in what the police describe as an encounter.Also read: In Khoda, Nobody Knows Why Surya and Asad Fought. That Hasn’t Stopped a Communal Narrative From Taking HoldThe people of India know very well how encounters are conducted. They also know how remarkably often they end with the accused dead and the police personnel involved escaping without even a scratch. In this case, too, we are told that Asad tried to flee and opened fire on the police, and they had to fire at him in self-defence. That firing caused his death. The police forces of Assam and Uttar Pradesh have, over the years, developed something that might be called a half-encounter. Hundreds of accused persons have been shot in the legs and permanently maimed. We are informed that they were attempting to escape and that the police had no option but to fire at them in order to stop them.Asad was not fortunate enough to receive a half-encounter.Also read: UP Police Book Family of Man Killed in Ghazipur ‘Encounter’ For Protesting His DeathThe demand from many Hindus, and from the family of the murdered boy Surya, was that he should be encountered. Respecting what is described as public sentiment, the administration obliged. Asad was killed.The police have released a detailed account of the operation. They have also informed us that no independent witness to the incident could be found. We are therefore expected to accept their account as the final and sufficient truth of what happened.We no longer seem to possess even that minimal sense of justice which would prompt us to ask whether the function of the police is to investigate or to punish. We no longer have the courage to say that an accused person remains merely an accused person until guilt is established. Such is our moral decline that Muslims are now expected not merely to accept the encounter but to applaud it.Has Asad’s killing satisfied the anger that his crime generated?Apparently not.The demand now is that the family into which he was born must also be punished. His father and brother have already been arrested. But that, too, is deemed insufficient. A notice has been issued for the demolition of his home.Perhaps the time has not yet come when the killing of an entire family can be publicly justified. But a family can certainly be ruined by other means. Turned into living dead. It can be rendered homeless. It can be entangled in endless cases and investigations until its life is reduced to rubble.Yet even this appears inadequate.The desire for punishment now extends beyond the individual and his family to the community of which he was a member. How is that punishment to be administered?Also read: Fact Check: Mr Rijiju, Persecution of Religious Minorities in India is Not ‘Propaganda’ But the RealityMadrasas in the area have been sealed. After all, in the imagination of the administration and much of Hindu society, boys like Asad are presumed to be produced there. But even that does not exhaust the appetite for retribution. Groups of Hindus are openly marching through Muslim neighbourhoods, proclaiming that Muslims will not be allowed to celebrate Eid, that they will not be allowed to offer prayers.Across streets and localities, crowds are raising threats of mass violence against Muslims. The administration has granted this campaign of intimidation a free pass, treating it as a legitimate expression of public emotion.Among these crowds are women demanding that Muslim women be stripped and raped, demanding that Muslims be killed. Are these too to be regarded as natural expressions of grief and outrage? Is this what public sorrow is now expected to sound like?Muslims are confronted not only with organised street campaigns. An entire army of YouTubers has emerged who corner Muslims and subject them to vulgar and provocative interrogation.A striking number of these YouTubers are young women. They stop Muslims aggressively, thrust microphones into their faces, and demand answers. Their gender often provides them with a form of immunity. To resist them is easily interpreted as an affront to a woman. To refuse to speak is treated as an admission of guilt. If someone attempts to walk away, they are pursued. If someone remains silent, they are mocked. Their questions are rarely questions. They are accusations disguised as inquiries, hostility disguised as journalism.How are Muslims expected to respond to this multi-pronged assault of hatred and intimidation?The question has, in a sense, become redundant. Muslims realise that hostility towards them is no longer confined to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).The anti-Muslim YouTubers are mostly young. The content they produce consists almost entirely of crudely expressed hatred directed at Muslims. They are confident that there exists a substantial audience willing to consume it with pleasure. It earns them money. Anti-Muslim hatred is no longer merely politically useful; it has become commercially rewarding.The tragedy is that the administration does nothing to restrain it.But who, in the present circumstances, is expected to do so? The number of those entrusted with this duty, the administrative officials, police officers, and even judges, willing to speak openly against Muslims appears to be increasing. No major political party seems prepared to challenge this atmosphere. Even those who seek Muslim votes remain silent. They lack the courage to tell their Hindu supporters that hatred and violence cannot form the basis of a democratic and decent society.As this filth of hatred is hurled at Muslims from every direction, are they expected simply to protect themselves from being stained by it and move on?Will that be enough?Can a threat uttered today not become a reality tomorrow?And even before it becomes reality, is a threat of violence not already a form of violence?Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University.