A cleric of an alleged ‘minority’ religion openly asking the PM of the Hindu homeland, Bharat, to convert to Islam could be expected to create a stir in any normal nation. But then, modern-day India is anything but normal. We are an outlier on the world stage, the only country of its size which is hostile to the religion, civilizational ethos and way of life of its majority population.

On June 19, hate-mongering maulana (Islamic scholar/cleric) Tauqeer Raza held a massive rally in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh to demand the arrest of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma over her alleged ‘blasphemy’ against Islam’s Prophet. Enough has already been written about how Nupur was made a target for Islamists by Alt News propagandist Md. Zubair, so we won’t get into that.

During that rally, Raza issued an invite to PM Modi and HM Amit Shah to convert to Islam. He also talked about universal adoption of Islam as the way to ‘world peace’, while running down Hindu Dharma and distorting sacred Dharmic concepts – all this with the practiced ease of a trained polemicist and proselytizer.

“I give dawat (invitation to Islam) to all those who harbor some misconceptions about Islam that they should try to read honestly about Islam. I give dawat to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. You are fond of leading? I invite you…there is no discrimination in our society, no distinction of high and low. When we go to pray in a mosque, we all stand next to each other. I invite you – understand Islam, turn towards Islam, Islam alone can bring about peace and harmony in the world,” Raza says in the clip above, conveniently brushing over the subcontinental Muslim caste system, the ethnic/racial discrimination rampant in Arab and Muslim society, and the millennia-old bloody Shia-Sunni and other sectarian conflicts among Sunni themselves such as the Deobandi-Barelvi divide. He also doesn’t mention that women are de-facto prohibited from mosques, something which apologists try all sorts of mental gymnastics to obfuscate. Islamic terror movements raging on almost all continents, and what the dreams of a global caliphate entail for non-Muslims, tell us exactly the kind of ‘peace’ Tauqeer Raza has in mind.

Next, Raza commits sacrilege against one of the core doctrines of Hindu Dharma – Moksha, i.e. enlightenment and liberation from cycle of birth and death.

“Narendra Modi, if you honestly want to attain moksha, walk on the path of moksha, then there is wahid (one) only Islam that is the way for nijat (Islamic concept of salvation/deliverance) in this world. Come on this path of nijat, your world will become better and so will your country. You are found of leading, of ruling? I will tell you how to become a ruler? Do all Muslims gathered here remember Hazrat Umar (Mohammed’s companion who became the second caliph in Islam’s history)? When Umar was in halat-e-kufr (state of disbelief i.e. being kafir), he was the greatest enemy of the Prophet. He would roam around with a sword threatening to kill the Prophet wherever he found him. Then he found faith and read the kalma. Muslims honored him and made him the Caliph. So come Narendra Modi, read the kalma (Islamic profession of faith) and we will treat you the same way, honor you,” Raza spews, confident in the knowledge that in ‘secular’ India he can get away with such mockery of moksha, something that humans attain only after several lifetimes of good deeds, mental purification and divine grace of Ishwara.

He goes on, “Dawat-e-Islam (invitation to Islam)..our Hindu brother try to take us backwards, we are inviting to take them forward. Come with us, we will take you on the path of progress. I request Hindu brothers – if you exist in this world for worldly desires, then you are on your own. But if you seek moksha, then you have to find the path of nijat.”

This brazen call to the PM and all Hindus to convert, projecting Islam as the only path for salvation, was delivered in an open ground in front of a cheering mass of Muslim men. As columnist Divya Soti rights observed, “Are we even comprehending the mass psychological impact a Maulana openly asking the Prime Minister of the country to convert to Islam before a crowd of zealous lakhs creates?”

Some media outlets did cover this rally, but their focus was more on the political demands raised by Raza who threatened to approach the United Nations to highlight the ‘plight of the minority community in India’. He flayed Nupur Sharma for her remarks and demanded her arrest and alleged that the Centre was not paying any heed to their demands. Even for the so-called nationalist media, the denigration of Hindu Dharma and the supremacist call to convert that Taueer Raza brazenly indulged in, just didn’t register.

No Hindu Dharmic organization has as yet challenged Raza or taken action against him. Our governments and courts will of course refuse to take any suo motu legal action, because Tauqeer Raza is the de-facto head of the Barelvi movement aka Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat, to which majority of Indian Muslims belong. He is the great grandson of Ahmed Raza Khan (1856- 1921), the founder of the Bareilvi movement, a Pashtun from Afghanistan whose ancestors migrated during Mughal rule and later settled in the Rohilkhand area of northwestern UP. Maulana Tauqeer Raza also heads a political party Ittehad-e-Millat Council that has allied with all ‘secular’ parties like Congress, SP, BSP in the past. He has been wooed by Kejriwal too.

Allying with Congress before this year’s UP assembly elections, Raza had demanded that the Islamic terrorists killed in the Batla House encounter should be given ‘martyr’ status.

No one has as yet questioned Tauqeer Raza that if his religious movement is indeed so egalitarian, why does the leadership mantle pass hereditarily, and why hasn’t any Ajlaf Muslim (Indian native convert to Islam) managed to become its leader?

‘Moderate’ Barelvis

Most Hindus today are disconnected from their own Dharma, which is why they either don’t understand when someone slyly denigrates their Dharma (some Hindus might even hear this speech and latching on to the word moksha, imagine that Tauqeer Raza is genuinely promoting inter-faith harmony) or they don’t care. Naturally, this lack of knowledge also extends to Islam and Christianity.

Sunni Muslims in the sub-continent fall into two broad categories – Deobandi and Barelvi, with Ahl-e-Hadith (also known as Indian Salafis/Wahhabis) making up a third group. While mainstream media likes to projects Barelvis (who follow Sufi practises like veneration of pirs and dargah visits) as ‘moderates’, the truth is very different. HinduPost has done a study of key teachers and strands of Sunni Islam in an an earlier article.

Notwithstanding the ‘moderation’ Barelvis are credited with, a critical scrutiny of their theological position shows a hardline stance. The movement’s founder said it is impermissible for Muslims to imitate the ‘kafir’ (like Hindus), to mingle with the ‘misguided/heretics’ and to participate in their festivals. He declared Shias, Ahmadis and Wahhabis to be apostates/disbelievers (murtad) and even labelled some Deobandi clerics and their followers as kafir/murtad! A key difference between Barelvis and Deobandis/Wahhabis is that the former believe Muhammad is both human and noor (light) and that he is omnipresent.

This article explains how Barelvi school fosters a separatist mindset by demanding its followers shun any social interaction with non-Barelvis, including other Muslims.

Most are unaware that Mumbai’s Reza Academy, which was behind the 2012 Azad Maidan riots and other instances of mob violence, belongs to the same Barelvi/Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat sect. The ‘sar tan se juda’ beheading slogan for blasphemers of Islam’s Prophet is a Barelvi favorite. Barelvis are fast becoming the new face of Islamic extremism in Pakistan. 

Pakistani Barelvi groups like Dawat-e-Islami and parties like Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) – founded by Khadim Rizvi Hussain aka ‘Hazrat Sahib’ who once compared Hindus to the toilet – have spawned people like Mumtaz Qadri, the security guard who murdered Salman Taseer for ‘blasphemy’, and have been involved in other terrorist acts. These groups are now spreading their tentacles to Bharat too, and Kanhaiya’s murderers were followers of Dawat-e-Islami.

Conclusion

Tauqeer Raza is like any other rabble rousing, hate-spewing supremacist maulana that one can find aplenty across the Muslim world. Usually, such elements would be confined to the margins and tightly monitored in a self-respecting democratic nation. But the likes of Raza are pampered by the Indian state and wooed as representatives of the Muslim community.

This hate-monger has in the past insulted Hindus by distorting the story of Draupadi in Mahabharata to state “Hindu women have 5 husbands, they don’t even know who is the father of their child”. He was arrested in 2010 by the Mayawati government for stoking communal riots in Bareilly.

In the last few months, he has issued genocidal threats in public to Hindus and the entire country with statements like “When my youth take law in hand, you will have nowhere to hide in India”, “We are Allah wale, what we say it happens, there will be blood bath Inshallah”, “The day Muslims come to the streets, they will be uncontrollable”. 

Tauqeer Raza’s daughter-in-law Nida Khan was given instant triple talaq by her husband in 2015 and has been fighting for her rights ever since, and later joined BJP. Recently, she got a death threat from her ex-husband and his family. Raza has also threatened to physically assault a journalist during a TV interview.

Unless all Bharatiyas learn the truth of these Abrahamic supremacists and start rebutting them head on, the Indian state dominated by current Hinduphobic elites will continue hurtling down the path of another complete and abject surrender.