A video has emerged in which former Pakistani cricketer turned Tablighi Jamaat proselytizer Saeed Anwar claims that South African ex-cricketer Hashim Amla has converted an entire Hindu family into Islam.

Hashim Amla is a leading South African batsman and former captain who retired from international cricket in 2019. Born in Durban, Amla is of Indian descent – his grandfather had migrated to South Africa from Surat, Gujarat, in 1927. Amla has also played in the lucrative IPL T20 league in Bharat.

In the video clip shared by the informative twitter handle @Pakistan_untold, Anwar (dressed in the traditional all-white clothing of Tablighi preachers) is addressing a group which includes Shahid Afridi, a motormouth Pakistani ex-cricketer known for his hardline anti-Hindu and anti-Bharat views.

Anwar says, “I request you…like Mashallah (what Allah has willed) so many people have converted to Islam during the (football) world cup, Allah made the world cup a means (to spread Islam). Hashim Amla is a great cricketer, Shahid (Afridi) knows about it, he (Amla) has made so many people read the kalma (Islamic declaration of faith). An entire Hindu family, of Amla’s scorer(?), converted to Islam. Mohammed Yousuf (a Pakistani cricketer who was formerly a Christian named Yousuf Youhana) too became the means for many (to convert to Islam)….so Allah has given all of you talents, do what you want. Become businessmen, rulers, but take Allah along with you, and make the Prophet’s work your work”.

In the past, Anwar has been heard exhorting Muslims to “save 6 billions non-Muslims destined for hellfire”.

A few months ago, current Pakistani cricketer Mohammed Rizwan had delivered a sermon during a Pakistan cricket tour to New Zealand, exhorting listeners that “Allah is the only master, to recognize Allah is life’s true goal.”

Strict observance of Islam has become a part & parcel of the Pakistani cricket team for many decades now. Saeed Anwar started the trend – following a personal tragedy, he turned to the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), a controversial dawah group started around 100 years back in pre-Independence Mewat region by a Deobandi maulana with the goal of ‘purifying’ Indian Islam of Hindu influences. TJ is recognized as a gateway to terrorism by many intelligence agencies and is banned or restricted in several countries, including Muslim-majority nations like Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan.

In Bharat, Islamists linked to TJ were at the forefront of the barbaric 2002 burning of 59 Hindu pilgrims travelling in Sabarmati Express, a cold-blooded crime which sparked off riots across Gujarat. During the Covid pandemic lockdown, many foreign TJ workers who were in Bharat for an ijtema (Islamic religious congregation) flouted their visa norms and refused to cooperate with authorities for testing and quarantine. They sexually harassed nurses and misbehaved and attacked staff in quarantine centers, but were let off with a mere slap on the wrist by our left-liberal judiciary.

TJ has a large following among subcontinental Muslims, and apart from Anwar, ex-cricketers like Shahid Afridi, Inzamam ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf (formerly Yousuf Youhana), Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed, Hashim Amla are among its followers.

Previously, former Pakistani cricket captain Inzamam ul-Haq has spoken about how he and other Muslim cricketers, including Indian Muslim cricketer Wasim Jaffer, tried to convert non-Muslim players to Islam when they were playing county cricket in England. Inzamam also revealed how during a bilateral series, the Pakistani cricket team would invite Indian Muslim players like IrfanPathan, Mohammed Kaif, Zaheer Khan and even non-Muslim players like Harbhajan Singh to listen to fundamentalist Islamic preacher Tariq Jamil’s talks in their dressing room.

Jamil at one point was heard blaming ‘immodest’ Muslim women for the Coronavirus pandemic; he had also added fuel to the raging Islamist fire over Nupur Sharma’s alleged ‘blasphemy’ against Islam’s prophet.

Interestingly, Wasim Jaffer had also tried to promote Islam and favored Muslim players when he was coach of the Uttarakhand cricket team. The state of Uttarakhand, also known as ‘Devabhoomi’ (land of the Devas/Gods), has several Hindu holy towns and Dharmic pilgrimage spots. After taking over as coach, Jaffer had reportedly objected to the ‘Ram Bhakt Hanuman ki Jai” team slogan, and when “Uttarakhand ki Jai” was suggested he still took offence to the Sanakrit-origin “jai”, finally forcing the slogan to be changed to “Go Uttarakhand”! Jaffer also invited maulanas to team training camps, to offer namaz.

There are several other examples which clearly demonstrate the deep Islamist anti-Hindu indoctrination of Pakistani society, especially its cricketers. Sohail Tanvir dissing Hindus for their ‘back-stabbing nature’, ex-PM Imran Khan talking of matches against Bharat as a ‘sort of jihad’, Shoaib Akhtar firmly believing in the Ghazwa-e-Hind prophecy about an Army of Islam conquering Bharat before Qayamat (end of times)’ Shahid Afridi breaking his TV after finding out his wife had let his children watch some Indian TV soap opera showing puja being done, Waqar Younis jubilantly praising a Pakistani cricketer for offering namaz on the field in front of Hindu Bharatiya cricketers (fundamentalist Muslims consider this a way to show superiority of Islam over kafirs) etc.

With such supremacist attitudes rampant in their society and cricket team, Bharat should continue to shun any sporting, economic and diplomatic contact with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, even if we are willing to overlook the constant Pakistani sponsorship of terror in J&K, Punjab and the rest of Bharat, and the ongoing slow genocide of Pakistani Hindus and other minorities.