Deccan Herald

Mohammad the Idiot was a controversial short story published in the Sunday magazine supplement of the Deccan Herald newspaper in December 1986.[3]

The story was about a handicapped, half-witted boy named Mohammad who committed suicide due to the travails of his family suffering from poverty. It was a fictional story originally written by PKN Namboodri a decade earlier in Malayalam language and had nothing to do with the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It created no turmoil when first published in the Kannada language.[4] However, Muslims in the city of Bengaluru took that story as a reference to their prophet and protested violently.[5] Marchers went on a rampage and attacked police personnel in the city of Bengaluru, Mysore, and Mandya.[6] Curfew was declared in Bengaluru and its suburban areas. The newspaper's editor, who happened to be its publisher, was arrested for ‘fomenting enmity between two communities and writing articles in a manner prejudicial to public peace.’ However, he was soon released on bail.[7] The incident claimed at least four lives, and over 50 people were injured.[8][9]