# Muslims in India are deliberately spitting in or contaminating food sold to Hindus as a coordinated religious act

**Verdict: Contradicted.** 'Thook jihad' (spit jihad) is a false, Islamophobic communal trope, not a documented phenomenon. Indian fact-checkers at Alt News, BOOM, and The Quint traced the viral 'proof' to old, foreign, non-Muslim, staged, or AI-generated clips, and India's broadcast regulator (the NBDSA) formally cautioned multiple TV channels for inflating isolated incidents into a religious conspiracy without evidence.

Category: Hoaxes & Pop Culture · Era: 2020s · First circulated: 2020 · Believed by: Circulated on Indian social media and Hindutva networks from the 2020 pandemic onward; amplified on prime-time TV from 2021
URL: https://theconspiratory.com/theory/thook-jihad

## Summary
A false, Islamophobic claim spread that Muslims in India deliberately spit in, blow on, or otherwise contaminate food they prepare or sell to Hindus, framed as a coordinated 'jihad' to spread disease or complete a supposed religious ritual. There is no evidence any such coordinated practice exists. Fact-checkers have repeatedly shown the viral videos offered as proof are old, filmed abroad, not even of Muslims, staged, or lately AI-generated, and India's news regulator has cautioned broadcasters for casting isolated incidents as a communal plot. The Conspiratory covers this trope only to debunk it and to document the real-world harm it has done.

## The claim
The trope, advanced online and on some Indian television channels under labels like 'thook jihad,' 'spit jihad,' or 'food jihad,' asserts that Muslim food workers, vendors, and clerics systematically and secretly spit in or otherwise contaminate food destined for Hindus, either to transmit disease or as a supposed act of faith that 'completes' halal, and that this amounts to a deliberate, organized campaign rather than the isolated misconduct of individuals.

## Origin and timeline
- 2020-03: As COVID-19 arrives in India, a wave of 'corona jihad' disinformation follows an early cluster linked to a Tablighi Jamaat gathering, recasting Muslims as deliberate spreaders of the virus. Videos purporting to show Muslim vendors spitting on food to infect Hindus go viral in this climate.
- 2020: Fact-checkers including Alt News and The Quint find the early 'spitting' clips are old or unrelated: pre-pandemic footage, videos filmed outside India, and clips of people blowing on or handling food, relabelled with a false Muslim-and-coronavirus caption.
- 2020-2021: A 2018 video of a man spitting on pizza dough, filmed at a Detroit ballpark, is shared in India as a Muslim refugee in a London restaurant. Alt News and BOOM identify the man as Jaylon Kerley, a US worker later charged under food-safety law, with no connection to Islam, London, or India.
- 2021-11: Prime-time television amplifies the trope. A News18 India anchor runs a debate around a viral clip, coining framings like 'riwaz-e-thook' (a supposed 'tradition of spitting') and 'thook jihad.' Media critics at Newslaundry document the segment as anti-Muslim misinformation.
- 2023: A recurring video of a Muslim cleric appearing to spit into communal food resurfaces. Fact-checkers show he is reciting over and blowing on the food (a prayer ritual sometimes called Fatiha or dum), not spitting, a debunk that had already run more than once.
- 2024-07: Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand order eateries along the Kanwar Yatra pilgrimage route to display their owners' names, widely read as a way to steer Hindu pilgrims away from Muslim-owned shops. In Muzaffarnagar the order is coercively enforced against Muslims. On 22 July 2024 the Supreme Court stays it.
- 2024-12: A viral video from Meerut appears to show a man spitting while making rotis, and several channels air it under a 'thook jihad' banner, presenting it as proof of a widespread Muslim conspiracy rather than an isolated act.
- 2026: India's News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) cautions NDTV India, and separately Zee News, Times Now Navbharat, and News18 India, for broadcasts invoking 'food jihad,' 'QR code jihad,' and 'thook jihad,' finding they made sweeping generalisations from isolated incidents in breach of the code against religious stereotyping. Fact-checkers begin flagging AI-generated 'spitting' videos joining the recycled ones.

## The evidence, claim by claim
- Claim: Viral videos caught Muslim vendors spitting on food to spread coronavirus to Hindus.
  Evidence: Repeatedly, the specific clips turned out to be old or out of context. Alt News and The Quint traced pandemic-era 'spitting' videos to footage that predated COVID-19 or was filmed outside India, and to clips of people blowing air onto food rather than spitting. In several cases the person was not identifiably Muslim at all. No clip has ever been shown to depict a coordinated communal campaign; each is an individual event given a false religious caption.
- Claim: A widely shared video shows a Muslim cleric spitting into a large pot of communal food.
  Evidence: Fact-checkers established the cleric was performing a prayer ritual, reciting Quranic verses over the food and blowing on it (variously called Fatiha or dum), a blessing requested by some in the community, not spitting to contaminate. The same video had been debunked more than once before it resurfaced, each time with the same false 'spitting' claim reattached.
- Claim: Muslim groups admitted in an Indian court that spitting is required to 'complete' the halal process.
  Evidence: This is a misrepresentation. Alt News, The Quint, BOOM, and Factly found the viral quote came from allegations made by a Hindu petitioner in a court plea, then falsely recast as an admission by Muslims. Halal refers to a permitted method of animal slaughter and dietary rules; imams and scholars confirm it involves no spitting or blowing on food. There is no religious doctrine, in any recognized Islamic school, that food is made halal by spitting on it.
- Claim: The sheer number of clips proves this is a widespread, coordinated 'jihad,' not stray incidents.
  Evidence: The NBDSA examined this exact leap and rejected it, ruling that presenting an isolated incident 'as thook jihad' and suggesting it was a widespread occurrence 'without substantiating the same' violated the broadcast code against racial and religious stereotyping. Fact-checkers have shown the circulating 'evidence' is padded with old, foreign, non-Muslim, staged, and now AI-generated videos. Isolated food-tampering by an individual is a crime that occurs occasionally among people of every background; it is prosecuted as such and is not evidence of a religious plot.
- Claim: Fresh videos keep surfacing, which shows the phenomenon is real and ongoing.
  Evidence: Novelty is not authenticity. Debunked clips are recycled on a loop, resurfacing years apart with the same false framing, and by 2026 fact-checkers were identifying wholly synthetic, AI-generated 'Muslim hotelier spitting on food' videos entering the same pipeline. A steady stream of new uploads reflects an active disinformation supply chain, not a real pattern of coordinated contamination.

## Why people believe it
- It plugs into a ready-made template. 'Thook jihad' is the newest entry in a franchise of 'jihad' conspiracy theories (love jihad, corona jihad, land jihad, QR-code jihad) that recodes almost any ordinary Muslim action as covert warfare, so a single clip slots instantly into a story people have already been taught.
- Food contamination triggers primal disgust. Revulsion is one of the stickiest, most shareable emotions, and a claim about spit in your food bypasses reasoning and lodges as a gut reaction, which is exactly why the smear travels faster than any correction.
- Prime-time television laundered a street rumour into 'news.' When anchors staged 'thook jihad' debate shows, they lent a WhatsApp forward the authority of a broadcast studio, and viewers reasonably assumed a televised segment must rest on something real.
- It has political and economic utility. The trope feeds boycotts of Muslim vendors and slots neatly into measures like the Kanwar-route nameplate orders, giving organised actors a reason to keep it in circulation regardless of the facts.
- One real incident is generalised to a whole community. An individual genuinely caught tampering with food (which happens, rarely, among people of every faith) is offered as proof about Muslims in general, the classic move of inflating an isolated crime into a collective conspiracy.

## Open questions
- Food hygiene and tampering are real concerns, and an individual who spits in food commits a real crime that should be investigated and prosecuted. The unresolved question is how authorities police that without communalising it: enforcing food-safety law on individuals is legitimate, branding a whole community with 'jihad' is not.
- How should India regulate on-air communal disinformation? The NBDSA's cautions carry no penalty and often come after a broadcast has already done its damage; whether stronger, enforceable guidelines follow, and whether they reach social platforms, is still open.
- The Kanwar-route nameplate orders were stayed by the Supreme Court but not finally resolved. Where the line falls between legitimate consumer disclosure and religious profiling of businesses remains a live legal and political question.
- AI-generated communal fake videos are a fast-growing vector. How platforms and fact-checkers keep pace with synthetic 'proof' manufactured to order is an unsettled problem that reaches well beyond this one trope.

## Sources
- Old video falsely viral as Muslim man spitting on food at Indian restaurant in the backdrop of coronavirus pandemic, Alt News (2020): https://www.altnews.in/old-video-falsely-viral-as-muslim-man-spitting-on-food-at-indian-restaurant-in-the-backdrop-of-coronavirus-pandemic/
- Old video of US man spitting on pizza shared with false Muslim angle in India, Alt News (2021): https://www.altnews.in/2018-video-america-spitting-on-pizza-shared-with-false-communal-angle/
- Did Muslims accept that spitting in food was a must for halal? False claim viral again, Alt News (2024): https://www.altnews.in/indu-makkal-katchi-falsely-claims-muslims-accept-spitting-completes-halal/
- 2018 Video Of Detroit Man Spitting On Pizza Revived With Communal Spin, BOOM (2021): https://www.boomlive.in/fact-check/man-spits-in-pizza-viral-video-muslim-islamophobia-fact-check-fake-news-12188
- Did Clerics Admit That Halal Means Spitting on Food in Court? No, Viral Claim is Misleading!, The Quint (WebQoof) (2024): https://www.thequint.com/news/webqoof/muslim-clerics-admit-halal-means-spitting-in-food-fact-check
- Avoid sweeping generalisations: news regulator cautions NDTV on 'thook jihad' claim in report, Scroll.in (2026): https://scroll.in/latest/1093081/avoid-sweeping-generalisations-news-regulator-cautions-ndtv-on-thook-jihad-claim-in-report
- NBDSA cautions Zee News, Times Now Navbharat, News18, NDTV over broadcasts which alleged 'food jihad', 'thook jihad', Bar and Bench (2026): https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/nbdsa-cautions-zee-news-times-now-navbharat-news18-ndtv-over-broadcasts-which-alleged-food-jihad-thook-jihad
- Targeting of Indian Muslims alleged in row over naming eateries by religion, Al Jazeera (2024): https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/7/24/targeting-of-indian-muslims-alleged-in-row-over-naming-eateries-by-religion
- India court blocks order for eateries to display owners' names, BBC News (2024): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czrj18yp489o

Rated by The Conspiratory, a neutral, sourced encyclopedia of conspiracy theories. Full page: https://theconspiratory.com/theory/thook-jihad