Muslim man rapes and threatens Hindu woman with acid attack, forces her to convert to Islam

Case ID : cadce59 | Location : Vadodara, Gujarat, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 31 May, 2023

Case ID : cadce59

Vadodara, Gujarat, India

31 May, 2023

Muslim man rapes and threatens Hindu woman with acid attack, forces her to convert to Islam

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

Navapura police in Vadodara, Gujarat have arrested one Muhammad Hussain Sheikh on charges of rape and intimidation. The victim, a married Hindu woman who lived in Hussain’s neighbourhood, said that the accused threatened her with her and her son’s life. He also threatened her with an acid attack and attempted to convert her to Islam. The Hindu woman said that Hussain took her to a Dargah around 20 days after he sexually assaulted her, where she was offered sweets and rosewater and forced to wear a Tabiz (amulet) around her neck and black strings were tied to her legs. The victim said that this was an attempt to convert her to Islam. According to the victim, Mohammed Hussain used to threaten her by saying, “I am a Muslim and you know what I can do. I’ll fix you and your child.” Based on the woman’s complaint, Navapura police arrested the accused Mohammed Hussain and sent him to jail. Although the Hindu woman alleged that the accused compelled her to convert to Islam, the police denied the conversion allegation and did not invoke any sections of the anti-conversion law in the case.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

In this particular case, the Hindu victim testified that the Muslim perpetrator forced her to convert to Islam. Despite the police's denial of the conversion allegations, we have proceeded to record the case in the Hindu hate tracker since we trust the account given by the victim. The sub-category under which we have put this case is 'Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion' under the prime category of Predatory Proselytisation since the victim was harassed and threatened to convert to Islam. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats in this case find their root on discriminatory grounds which have the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion and forceful circumcision. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment in an attempt to make the Hindu victim abandon his/her professed religion and adopt the religion of the perpetrator. In this sub-category, we would include cases where the non-Hindu perpetrator harassed, threatened or coerced the victim to convert, however, the Hindu victim did not convert to another faith. Cases where the victim was converted owing to the harassment and threats would be documented in another sub-category. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes.