Minor Hindu boy forcefully circumcised, sent to Madrasa for religious conversion

Case ID : f6646b5 | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 15 July, 2023

Case ID : f6646b5

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

15 July, 2023

Minor Hindu boy forcefully circumcised, sent to Madrasa for religious conversion

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

An 8-year-old Hindu boy was forcefully circumcised and sent to a madarsa to change his religion. As per reports, Mahesh, a resident of Rajasthan’s Barmer had filed an FIR in Indore against his wife and her Muslim boyfriend for forcibly trying to convert their 8-year-old boy and subjecting the child to Islamic circumcision. The case was filed in July 2023. In his complaint, Mahesh had mentioned that he had married Prarthana in 2014, and the couple had a boy child in 2015. In 2018, Prarthana eloped with a Muslim man named Iliyas when the couple had gone to attend a relative’s wedding. The woman had also taken the child away with her. While living with Iliyas, the woman tried to convert the child’s religion without consent from the father. The child was subjected to circumcision and was made to attend a madarsa by Iliyas and another person. When Mahesh tried to get his son back, he was told by Iliyas to pay Rs 5 lakhs. Mahesh had complained that Iliyas is associated with PFI workers who have been jailed for their activities. On February 20, a court in Indore sentenced a woman named Prarthana (27), her Muslim boyfriend Iliyas Ahmed (33) and another person to 10 years in jail.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been placed in the hate tracker under the prime category- Predatory Proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category chosen is- Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. 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 has 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, forceful circumcision etc. 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 to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. 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. In this specific case, it is evident from the details that the Hindu victims were minors which essentially means that the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Further, what makes this case a distinct case of a religiously motivated hate crime is that the perpetrator tried to use the tactics of intimidation like forced circumcision, to convert a minor boy to Islam. Though circumcision is not a prerequisite to converting to Islam, however, it is often seen that it is used as an intimidatory tactic to make the Hindu victim abandon his/her professed religion and adopt the religion of the perpetrator. This sort of harassment is rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and is therefore documented as a religiously motivated hate crime in this Hindu hate tracker.