On Monday, July 15, radical preacher Maulana Tauqeer Raza announced preparations for a public conversion event, where five Hindu women are set to convert to Islam and subsequently marry their Muslim partners. The event is scheduled to take place at Khalil Higher Secondary School in Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh, on July 21 at 11 am.

Raza claimed that he had received 23 applications for conversion, including five from Hindu men and 15 from Hindu women, seeking to embrace Islam. In the first phase of his plan, he intends to conduct the conversion and nikkah (marriage) of five Hindus.

Raza's aide, Nadeem Qureshi, has officially sought permission from the district administration to hold the event. The request was sent to City Magistrate Rajiv Shukla, who confirmed receiving the application and forwarded it to the local police for further action.

Justifying his actions, Raza argued that many of the interfaith couples involved were already in live-in relationships, which are permitted by the Indian constitution but considered unlawful in both Islam and Hinduism. He asserted that his organisation, Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC), had announced that conversions for the sake of love or greed would not be allowed, aiming to divert attention from allegations of deceitful conversions.

Raza insisted that the event was legal and should be permitted by the local administration. Last year, he sparked controversy by denying the existence of 'love jihad,' a term used to describe the alleged forced conversion of non-Muslim women, particularly Hindus, by Muslim men under the guise of love. In 2023 alone, OpIndia reported 153 such cases.

Additionally, Raza has previously attempted to popularise the 'Bhagwa Love Trap' conspiracy theory, which suggests a ploy to convert Muslim women to Hinduism. This theory, promoted by another radical preacher, Maulana Sajjad Nomani, has led to numerous instances of moral policing, harassment, assault, and molestation of Muslim women and Hindu men by radical Islamists.

The local authorities are currently evaluating the request, while the proposed mass conversion event continues to draw significant attention and controversy.

Image source: Amar Ujala