Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, a senior cleric of Western Uttar Pradesh and a well-known Islamic scholar from Meerut, was arrested last week by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on charges of running an illegal religious conversion racket. Three other associates of the Maulana were also taken into custody along with him; the arrests were made based on clues obtained during the interrogation of another Muslim cleric, Mohammad Umar Gautam, by the ATS. Umar Gautam was arrested three months ago by ATS for running a similar conversion racket.
Reportedly, all the detainees were interrogated throughout the night by the ATS. According to recent reports, the squad made 10 more arrests for alleged connections with the religious conversion racket case. Officials have confirmed that the detainees have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2020.
Siddiqui was presented in court on Wednesday; the ATS asked that he be kept in custody for ten days while they probed further into the case, according to Uttar Pradesh’s Additional Director General (ADG) for Law & Order, Prashant Kumar. The Special Additional District and Session Court, after considering the evidence produced by the prosecution (the National Investigation Agency, NIA, and the ATS) agreed to this custody. The remand period started on September 24 at 10 AM. The officials will interrogate the Maulana to get additional information about his links.
The UP ATS claims that Maulana Siddiqui has been operating a major Islamic conversion syndicate, and that his network is larger than that of Umar Gautam’s, who is said to have converted thousands of Hindus in Uttar Pradesh and in the national capital.
In a viral audio-visual shared by Zee News, Siddiqui can be seen admitting that he prefers targeting Hindu girls from “upper castes” for the mass illegal religious conversion syndicate that he ran. Officials suspect that a vast number of non-Muslims have been converted to Islam by the Islamic cleric to further the agenda of grooming non-Muslim women and expanding the Muslim population in India. UP ATS has also stated that Siddiqui has received funds from Pakistan to run the “largest conversion syndicate.” Not only funds, but Siddiqui might have received technical support as well. Fearing arrest after Umar Gautam’s detention, he had tried to evade being spotted by the ATS by changing his mobile phone number frequently.
Kumar, in his statement to the media, confirmed that the Maulana “runs Jamia Imam Waliullah Trust that funds several madrassas for which he received huge foreign funding. Investigation shows Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui’s trust received Rs 3 crores in foreign funding, including Rs 1.5 from Bahrain. Six teams of ATS have been formed to investigate this case.”
Despite the grave allegation leveled at the Maulana, enormous support has poured in for him from Muslim bodies and political personalities. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Amanatullah Khan, who had previously defended the accused anti-Hindu Delhi riot ringleader Tahir Hussain, has extended his support for Siddiqui. He called the arrest an “atrocity on Muslims,” questioned the silence of “secular political parties” on the arrest, and condemned the arrest as part of the BJP’s designs to win elections.
Samajwadi Party Parliamentarian Shafiqur Rahman Barq alleges, “This is wrong. The BJP government has no work other than harassing Muslims.”
The arrest of Maulana Siddiqui has also been opposed by the students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). On Friday, AMU students gathered at the Bab-e-Syed gate of the university and marched to Jama Masjid on the campus. They offered Friday prayers at the mosque before starting their protest march to Bab-e-Syed against the Islamic scholar’s arrest. They also warned the district administration that they would intensify their agitation if Siddiqui is not released soon by the ATS.
Meanwhile, members of Civil Societies of AMU, including M. Salman Imtiaz, former president of Aligarh Muslim University Student Union, organized a separate demonstration. Imtiaz declared, “Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui has been illegally arrested in a false case of illegal religious conversion. It is all part of a conspiracy hatched by the ruling party in the state. All are free to have their religious belief and practice the religion of their choice. The Muslim preachers never force others to accept Islam by coercion or threat.” They have also submitted a memorandum, expressing their anguish over Siddiqui’s “uncalled for” arrest, addressed to the governor of Uttar Pradesh.
Protests and support from Muslim entities notwithstanding, Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui remains in police remand. It is suspected that he has converted as many as a hundred thousand non-Muslims to Islam already. Allegedly, he had Love Jihad (Grooming Jihad) on his agenda as well, and hence was on the close watch by the security agency for such suspicious activities.
Michael Copeland says
Always the victim.
mortimer says
Islam commands Muslim males to convert one woman to Islam …
Mohammed said, ‘Marry one for the religion.’ Sahih Bukhari 7 62 27
“A woman can be married for religion, her fortune, or her beauty. So marry one for the religion.”
Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 7, Bk. 62, No. 27
This mullah decided to encourage this on an industrial scale through deceit and bribery.
Deceit and bribery are NORMATIVE Islam, rather than aberrations. Islam is an opportunistic religion.
gravenimage says
Grimly true, Mortimer.
somehistory says
If mozlums were given the land…of the paki….why does India even allow any to stay in India?
By now, it is obvious that mozlums are out to conquer the world for satan, to put everyone under control of their demon ‘god,’ and young girls are such easy prey….by mozlums pretending to be Hindu and pretending just to be “nice guys.”
Drop kick them all back to the land of the paki….let khan take care of them.
Of course, this will never happen.
Jesus said that the “nations do not know the way out,” of the situation in which they find themselves in these “last days.”
mortimer says
Hindus did not ask for the partition.
somehistory says
I did not say anything about anyone “asking for the partition,” nor did I say any word about who asked for the “partition”….your comment has nothing to add to what I was saying.
By the way, how many did you ask in your ***historical**** survey of the Hindus?
Infidel says
This is an issue many Hindus rail about to this day: real reason, in 2 words – Gandhi and Nehru. They were the 2 who obdurately insisted on proving the ‘illogic’ of Pakistan by forcing the remainder of the country to be secular
somehistory says
It seems that if the country was divided to give mozlums a place where they could practice their filthy ways without killing, raping their way through the populations that disagreed with them…to stop the wars and killings… then the rest of the country should have been as the citizens wanted…if Hindus, then they should have been free to practice also.
I was raised by those who read the Bible and believed in Jesus Christ. I have read a little of the beliefs of others…can’t say I know a whole lot about any of them…and I think that I have spoken with, gotten to know many, of just about every belief system there is. The Hindus I met were very kind. I cannot say the same for the mozlums, and I’ve met far more of those, so if they were taught to be nice, surely I would have met some who were.
It has been my life experiences to see that often man, and woman too, of course, can make huge messes of things when they decide for others ‘what is best.’
It is my belief that all will soon be made right. In India and everywhere.
OTTER says
There is no God.
Otherwise how can there be Islam?
The universe favors evil.
Good is loosing everywhere.
mortimer says
No, Otter, there is a constant struggle between good and evil. Most of what we call ‘evil’ is lazy thinking, overgeneralization, rash foolishness and stupidity.
Infidel says
Either that, but for Hindus, there’s also the Kalyug explanation: that we’re living in an era of progressively increasing evil, which will be ended by Vishnu taking his next incarnation. It’s a flipped version of Judaism’s messiah: Judaism assumes that the world will continue to improve (in virtue) and the messiah will arrive when perfection has been attained. Hinduism, or the Vaishnav part of it at least, assumes that the world will continue to devolve until Vishnu himself intervenes. It looks like there is ways to go before that happens
somehistory says
There is a God. He sets times for taking actions. He created man to be a free-will creation…not run by instinct as the rest of the animal world, but a creature who could think, reason, make decisions and put his whole heart and soul in to doing good…to Love, to show kindness, goodness, self-control…
as God wanted him to do. That is why God “made man in His image.”
Man was made to reflect…as a mirror does…the Love, Goodness and Righteousness of our Creator.
He had also made the angels to have free will; and some decided, as did Adam and Eve, to choose not to do good. The first angel to rebel was named after his rebellion, satan and devil.
satan was the beginning of evil, all of his actions are evil and he lies to induce humans to follow him into rebelling against our Creator.
But. just as God set times, days, seasons, He also set a “time to judge the entire inhabited earth.” He sent His Son to show us the “way” to please Him. Some listened and wrote down what they saw and heard.
There will soon be the time for Christ to “return” and set all matters right: “To Judge the entire inhabited earth.”
Evil in the person of satan, his demon companions and his human followers, will be destroyed. Forever.
Those who love what is right, should not give up in doing right just because evil seems to be flourishing, even seems to be ‘winning.’ These days are just as Jesus said they would be when He returns. He said, “Raise yourselves erect….your deliverance is getting near.”
john smith says
An excellent explanation Somehistory
somehistory says
Thank you very much, John Smith.
gravenimage says
There are good people who fight against evill, no matter what you believe.
Eighty years ago the free world defeated Fascism. Evil does *not* always win.
gravenimage says
India: Muslim cleric arrested for running massive Islamic conversion syndicate
……………………….
This does not surprise. Glad he has been arrested.