Muslim man lures Hindu boys to convert to Islam in online game ‘Fortnite’ after making fake Hindu IDs
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 
30 May, 2023
Case Summary
On June 4, Ghaziabad Police said that a minor Jain boy was lured by Islamists to follow practices of Islam including offering Namaz five times a day. The victim’s father filed a complaint on May 30 at Kavinagar Police Station in which he said his minor son was lured into practising Islam by Islamists online. So far, 3 Hindu boys and 1 Jain boy have been identified as victims, brainwashed through a game called Fortnite. One Maksood was the mastermind behind the nexus. During the investigation, police found that there were multiple steps involved in luring Hindu and Jain boys towards Islam. In the first step, Muslim men created ids with Hindu names and played Fortnite games with unaware players of the Hindu and Jain communities. If they lose, the accused would force them to recite Islamic verses suggesting it will help them win. Later, they would let them win to establish trust. In the second step, they were lured into following Islamic practices. In the third step, they would share videos of fugitive Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and Islamic speeches to brainwash the victims. Using these videos, they would inform them about Islamic practices and lure them to embrace Islam.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, the Muslim perpetrators faked their identities to target Hindu children specifically. They encashed the children's obsession with online games to trap them and brainwash them into renouncing their faith and adopting another. By assuring them that they would win games after reciting Namaz, the children, who are particularly vulnerable due to their developing cognitive and emotional states, were manipulated into believing that Islam is a superior religion. Further, the Muslim perpetrators attempted to brainwash and radicalise the Hindu children by showing him videos of Islamic hate preacher Zakir Naik. The distinct components of brainwashing and indoctrination demonstrate the perpetrator's bias against the Hindu faith and their deliberate attempt to alienate the victims from their religious identity. Since the underlying offence is against children of a specific faith and involves indoctrination and brainwashing, this case is being categorised as a hate crime. Further, since the children's emerging obsession with online gaming was exploited for the purpose of illegal conversion, the case has been categorised as a hate crime where brainwashing and manipulation were deployed.
Victim Details
Total Victim
4
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 4
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 4
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 3
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
