Ganesh Chaturthi, a ten-day festival celebrating the birth of Ganesha is a widely popular Hindu festival which is not only celebrated with great fanfare in Maharashtra but throughout the country. Often, the celebration isn’t limited to the Hindu community and transcends religion.
Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan posted a picture of his son praying to Lord Ganesha on social networking sites.
Our Ganpati ‘Pappa’ is home, as the lil one calls him. pic.twitter.com/G7pSAgeQlj
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) September 16, 2018
However, little did he know that he was setting himself up for abuses from Islamists. Soon, abuses and condemnations started pouring in as a response to Shahrukh’s tweet.
Social media was quick in mortifying the actor for his secular views.
Islamist fundamentalists were quick in schooling Shahrukh reminding him that practising or following any other religion was a sin in Islam and by encouraging his son for doing so, he was disrespecting ‘Allah’.
Few, in their animosity, did not spare his parents as well,
This is not the first time celebrities have been trolled by fundamentalists on social media. Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan too has had his share of such an incident where a Muslim organisation, almost a decade back, had issued a fatwa against him for attending a Ganesh puja.
A popular Bengali actress Nusrat Jahan was earlier insulted on Facebook for celebrating Durga Puja as it was called out to be ‘inappropriate’. While cricketer Mohammad Kaif was trolled by Muslim fundamentalists for celebrating Christmas with family, he was also condemned for doing Surya Namaskar. Cricketer Irfan Pathan, too, was told by fundamentalists that Raksha Bandhan is ‘against Islam’.
Aamir Khan also had a lot of hate directed towards him for uploading pictures of him eating during the month of Ramzan. Hina Khan, a popular television artist was also asked by Islamists to dress appropriately during Ramzan.