On December 23, 2021, in an annual news conference held in Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said disrespecting the Prophet Mohammed is not freedom of expression. Insults against the Prophet Muhammad are a "violation of religious freedom and the violation of the sacred feelings of people who profess Islam."
On December 21, 2021, several videos surfaced showing several prominent Indian figures, including a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, calling for citizens to attack Muslims. The calls for violence originate at two separate events in Delhi and Haridwar on December 17 and 19.
On December 18, with tensions already high within the Sikh community of the Indian state of Punjab, the second post-sacrilege lynching took place in so many days. A man in the Kapurthala district was supposedly seen “disrespecting” the Nishan Sahib (the Sikh flag) by locals. Harkamalpreet Singh, a police officer at the scene, further explained that the man tried to steal the flag.
On December 20, 2021, the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, with its Rewards for Justice office, has offered a $5 million reward for information on the terrorist attack and murder of Avijit Roy, an Atheist blogger and naturalized American citizen, which took place nearly seven years ago in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
On Saturday, December 18, 2021, a man was beaten to death after attempting to steal a ceremonial sword that is kept next to the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism's holy book, during prayers inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. The event was caught on camera in the video below.
