Bakrid is approaching. How do we know that? It is not the word of the local maulvi, but the statements of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, ministers and chief ministers of the BJP-led governments – all filled with warnings and threats directed at Muslims – that indicate another Muslim festival is close.It seems that Eid and Bakrid are awaited with greater eagerness by Hindutva forces than by Muslims themselves. Their excitement visibly rises as Muslim festivals draw closer. One only has to listen to Hindutva leaders or read their statements to understand how thrilled they are at the prospect of yet another opportunity to humiliate and harass Muslims. Needless to say, these statements carry no message of greeting or goodwill.In West Bengal, minister Dilip Ghosh issued a warning in Hindi that everything must happen “according to the law” and that nobody would be allowed to violate it. But in what context – and to whom – was he saying this? Was he referring to those who are stopping auto-rickshaws on the road, assaulting drivers and forcing them to chant Jai Shri Ram? Or to those officials who, immediately after the BJP’s electoral victories, started bulldozing the houses and shops of the poor and of Muslims? Or was he indicting himself and other BJP leaders who openly declare that, since Muslims did not vote for them, they will not receive the benefits of government schemes? Was he condemning those who announced, in open violation of the constitution, that the government would now work only for those who support it?Everyone knows these warnings were aimed at Muslims ahead of Bakrid. Even earlier, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had threatened that nobody would be allowed to offer namaz on the streets. Orders were issued against cow sacrifice. Mosques would not be allowed to make the azan call for prayers. And just before Bakrid, it was announced that the customary two-day holiday would now be reduced to a single day.The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh warned Muslims that they would not be permitted to offer prayers on the roads. If they failed to get the message, he said, they would be “made to understand” through other means. We all know what those “other means” signify.The Chief Minister of Assam advised Muslims to conduct sacrifices “properly”. He praised Muslim voices that appealed against cow sacrifice. Himanta Biswa Sarma went so far as to say that Bakrid should eventually become entirely free of sacrifice. Muslims, he declared, were respecting “Sanatan sentiments,” and this, he said, would preserve peace in society.BJP leaders in Delhi too issued warnings that both sacrifice and namaz must remain “within limits” and be conducted according to prescribed rules.Videos are circulating in which we see vehicles being stopped and attacked on suspicion that cows are being transported illegally for sacrifice. But the matter no longer ends with cows. Goats, too, are being seized. In Delhi, just before Bakrid, public activity in Nehru Hill Park was prohibited because of apprehensions that goats might be bought and sold there.Gau Rakshak bands are being formed on the eve of Bakrid to monitor the transportation of the sacred animal. We hear about vehicles being intercepted and attacked by these goons, who call themselves Gau Rakshaks.One television channel even travelled to Mecca to investigate whether cows and camels were being sacrificed there. These channels never went to Gaza while children were being slaughtered, nor to Sudan, where massacres continue unabated. But on the eve of Bakrid, they found it worthwhile to undertake the noble journalistic exercise of travelling to Mecca to collect this “important” information and disseminate it to the Indian audience – only to show that the “real” Muslims of Arabia are more reasonable than the “converted” ones of India.Displaced Palestinian children play on a swing at a tent camp during Eid al-Adha in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP.The animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, launched a campaign in which a goat pleads with people not to sacrifice it. Children pause lovingly to caress the animal. Could anyone be so heartless, the campaign asks, as to slaughter such a helpless creature? Significantly, this campaign has been launched precisely before Bakrid.Can PETA run a similar campaign at Kamakhya temple? Could it carry out such a campaign in my own ancestral town of Deoghar, where multiple animal sacrifices take place during sacred-thread ceremonies, weddings and other rituals? It never has. It never will. There is less compassion for goats in PETA’s campaign than there is hostility toward Muslims. That hostility remains indirect, coated in the language of compassion for animals, but it is impossible not to feel it. The idea is to show that Bakrid is an inhuman festival, when the heartless Muslim would sacrifice the hapless goat.Of course, attacks on Muslims now continue throughout the year. They do not have to wait for occasions like Eid or Bakrid. On the streets, in restaurants, on trains and buses – anywhere, at any time, under any pretext, Muslims can be – and are – attacked, assaulted and killed. This is normal in India and no longer makes news. But as Bakrid approaches, this campaign of anti-Muslim hatred acquires an ominous intensity.What is most distressing is that even decent Hindus often fail to see or feel this hatred directed at Muslims. Many Hindus innocently ask why prayers should be offered on roads at all. They regard restrictions on namaz as reasonable measures meant to ensure smooth traffic flow. But they never ask why roads outside Hanuman temples remain blocked for hours every Tuesday. During almost every Hindu festival, roads are occupied by idols and processions.Whether it is Ganesh Chaturthi, Rath Yatra, Ram Navami, Durga Puja, Saraswati Puja, Mahaviri Akhara processions, Hanuman Jayanti, or countless others, roads are seized not merely for a day but often for many days at a stretch. And then there is the month-long Kanwar Yatra, during which entire highways are officially surrendered to the Kanwariyas.Hindutva supporters raided a housing society in Mira Road, Mumbai, Maharashtra on May 26, 2026, to prevent Eid preparations of Muslim residents, causing alarm and chaos. Screengrab from video of incident on X.Have we ever heard Hindu chief ministers appeal during Hindu festivals that their worship should remain confined to temples, which stand every few steps anyway? Has any warning ever been issued asking Hindus to celebrate their festivals in ways that do not inconvenience others?Muslims do not create public hysteria during their festivals. Christians do not either. They never march before temples performing sacrifices. Even during Muharram, Muslims do not stand before temples to perform mourning. Hindus alone demand the right to play loud music before mosques, to enter mosque premises and to desecrate Muslim religious symbols. They raise slogans against Muslims and play songs abusing Muslims in their religious processions. It is as though, without doing this, their religious pleasure now feels incomplete.One notices restraint among Muslims during their festivals. But unfortunately, during these occasions, the anti-Muslim hatred within Hindu society begins to spill out like sewage overflowing from a gutter. What kind of pleasure is derived from preventing Muslims from celebrating their festivals peacefully? And why? Will Hindu society ever confront this pathology within itself?Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University.