People of this religion accepting Islam because..., situation in India is....
The Pew survey, which was conducted in 13 countries, revealed that over 90 percent of people born and raised in Muslim families still consider themselves Muslims. The number of people leaving the religion and accepting another is also lower compared to Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism. On the contrary, people leaving Islam often don't follow any religion or identify themselves as Christians. Conversions from Christianity to Islam have been most commonly witnessed in countries like the US, Kenya, and Ghana. Reality Of Conversion
Conversion is a very delicate issue in the era of religious polarisation. As per the Prew report, while religious conversion is a contentious topic, in thirteen countries, the growth of Islam attributable to conversion is under 3 percent. However, in Muslim countries like Indonesia, conversion to or other religions is less than 1 percent. The report suggests that conversion plays a minor role in the overall increase of the Muslim population. Status of Hinduism
In the Pew report, information about Hinduism has been received from only four countries – India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and America. In India and Bangladesh, almost all the people who are born and raised as Hindus still follow Hindu religion.
Religious adherence among those raised Hindu varies significantly across countries. India and Bangladesh show exceptionally high rates of continued Hindu identity, with nearly all maintaining their childhood faith. Sri Lanka exhibits a similar, though slightly lower, level of retention. In contrast, the United States displays a considerably lower rate of Hindu identity among those raised Hindu, with a notable percentage identifying as atheist, agnostic, or religiously unaffiliated. Furthermore, religious conversion from Hinduism to Christianity is observed in Sri Lanka. Surveys suggest that India and Bangladesh demonstrate the strongest religious stability, with the vast majority of both Hindus and Muslims retaining their birth religions, indicating robust religious and cultural influences within their societies.
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Scroll.in
18 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
Before demanding citizenship proof from Kargil veteran's family, mob barged into another Muslim home
On the night of July 26, a mob of Hindutva sympathisers forcibly entered the home of a Kargil war veteran's family in Pune's Chandan Nagar, accused his family of being Bangladeshi and demanded to see documents proving that they were Indian. Hours before, the same mob had similarly harassed another Muslim family who lived three houses away. In both instances, the mob was accompanied by police officials. As outrage over the incident grew, the police filed a first information report against seven Bajrang Dal workers who had raided the homes. 'In the garb of looking for illegal migrants, Muslims are being harassed,' said Shamshad Sheikh, whose uncle fought in the Kargil War. Sheikh and his family members were among those forced to go to the police station in the middle of the night with their documents. 'Several from our family served in the army, but we have been harassed to prove our nationality,' Sheikh said. So far, 16 people have been named in a first information report, Chandan Nagar Police Inspector Seema Dhakne told Scroll. Pradeep Jagannath Dhumal, the police hawaldar at the police station who is the main complainant, said that the initial FIR named seven people. 'All of them are Bajrang Dal members,' Dhumal told Scroll over the phone. Dhakne admitted to Scroll that the police had not carried out any background checks on the two Muslim families before they accompanied the Bajrang Dal workers to 'question' them. Vigilantes on the prowl Last Saturday night, Mohammed Salman had just retired to bed when there was a long banging on the ground-floor rented apartment in Chandan Nagar that he shared with his brother's family. Salman runs a hair-cutting salon in Pune. 'When my brother opened the door, several men came inside. They were chanting Jai Shri Ram,' he said. 'They said 'Aadhaar card nikalo, PAN card nikalo, kahan se aaye ho?'' Take out your Aadhar card, PAN card; where have you come from? Salman has lived in Chandan Nagar for six years. 'Before this we lived in another part of the city,' he said. 'My brother has lived in Pune for 17 years.' Salman said that a man dressed in plain clothes said he was from the police and asked them if any other Muslims lived in the neighbourhood. 'We were scared and told them about the Sheikh family,' said Salman. 'The Sheikhs are our neighbours in Pratapgarh' in Uttar Pradesh. The Hindutva workers and the accompanying police called Salman's landlord, who lived on the upper floor, to show identity proof. When contacted, the landlord refused to comment. A family of soldiers The mob then went next door into Sheikh's home. 'There were about 60 to 70 of them,' Shamshad Sheikh told Scroll. 'They went into our bedrooms, abused women and threatened children.' Sheikh, runs a transport business and lives in the residential locality. His extended family of 30, including his four brothers, live in the three adjoining houses. Sheikh's uncle Hakiumuddin served in the Indian Army and fought in the Kargil War. Hakimuddin currently lives in Pratapgarh. Hakimuddin's uncle – Sheikh's great-uncle – was also an Indian Army war veteran: he fought in the 1965 war against Pakistan and later in 1971. Several members of the family have served in the Indian army. Sheikh said five to seven men kept barging into the house while the rest stood outside and called them 'Bangladeshis'. 'We showed them our Aadhaar card, our PAN card,' he said. 'But they said the documents were fake.' Sheikh said that people in the mob identified themselves as Bajrang Dal members. The mob forced Sheikh's family to go to the Chandan Nagar police station. 'One person identified himself as a policeman,' said Sheikh. 'He was in plain clothes. He said the women and children could stay behind.' Sheikh, his brothers, uncle and their sons, and their neighbours Salman and his brother took their identification documents to the Chandan Nagar police station and waited there till 2.30 am. 'The police inspector told us to come again by 11 am the next day,' said Sheikh. 'She said that if we didn't come, we would be declared as Bangladeshis.' Chandan Nagar Police Inspector Dhakne refuted the allegation that she had threatened to declare the Sheikh family as Bangladeshis. 'I just asked them to return and submit their documents the next day,' Dhakne told Scroll. The family returned to the police station with their documents the next day. 'After that nobody harassed us,' said Sheikh. Policemen in plainclothes were with the mob, alleged the families, which the police later confirmed. 'The tip' Dhakne said that the Bajrang Dal told the police that some men from Assam were living in the area. She said the police team went directly to the spot with Bajrang Dal members without making any other inquiries. 'We suspected them to be Bangladeshis,' she said. 'If we get a tip, we will visit the spot. Some of our officers from the detection team wore civil clothes.' Dhakne added: 'We ask the suspects to show identification proof, details of native village, the local police station and we verify their details and leave them. The same protocol was carried out in this case.' In the initial FIR against the Hindutva mob, the police invoked sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanahita for unlawful assembly, disobeying public servants and creating public nuisance. But outrage grew over the harassment of a Kargil war veteran's family. The 26th anniversary of the Kargil War was marked across India on the same day – July 26. The police have added more stringent charges under Section 115 for causing voluntary hurt, Section 329 for criminal trespass, Section 353 for circulating false information and Section 299 for outraging religious feelings. Deputy commissioner of Police Somay Munde did not respond to calls or messages from Scroll. Officials from the Mumbai police told Scroll that they usually check the call data records of suspects to see if any phone calls have been made or received from Bangladesh before detaining people for questioning. However, Dhakne said they 'did not verify call records'. 'Police complicit' Milind Champanerkar, general secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties, said it was a worrying pattern that 'even the police is complicit in anti-Muslim agenda'. 'About three months ago a Muslim salon owner was assaulted in Pune's Kothrud area because of his faith,' said Champanerkar. 'But the police did nothing, did not detain or arrest anyone.' Champanerkar said the police are dutybound to safeguard citizens. 'How can the police allow the Bajrang Dal to take the lead?' he asked, pointing out that no one from the outfit had been arrested so far for intruding into the homes of others. Firoz Khan, who runs a charitable organisation and is a member of the Republican Party of India in Pune, said communal incidents have increased lately. 'And all this is happening with complete knowledge of the police,' he said.
Hans India
18 minutes ago
- Hans India
Congress sleepwalks toward irrelevance and a 2029 defeat
The Congress party and it's I.N.D.I.A bloc allies have once again exposed their deep-rooted bias and misplaced priorities by mocking names like Operation Mahadev and Operation Sindoor. In their desperation to attack the government, they've stooped to questioning military operations, insulting our armed forces, and echoing hostile foreign voices like Donald Trump. From denying Pakistan's role in terror attacks to staying silent on the Malegaon verdict, the opposition's selective outrage and appeasement politics have crossed all limits. They refuse to show empathy to victims, seek justice for the falsely accused, or respect national sentiment which exposes their dangerous hypocrisy and reminds them that secularism doesn't mean shaming Hindu symbols or compromising India's integrity. They say you can wake up a sleeping person, but you cannot wake someone who is pretending to be asleep. This aptly describes the Congress party and the disjointed I.N.D.I.A bloc today. Their posturing in Parliament during the debate on Operation Sindoor and Operation Mahadev proves one thing: if they continue down this path, they are inching towards a political wipeout by 2029. Let me begin with a small anecdote. In Tamil Nadu, sworn opponents DMK and AIADMK, despite their ideological battles, once presented a united front before Singapore authorities regarding a delayed project. The Singapore officials were stunned to see both parties in the same room. The Tamil leaders simply replied, 'Our fight is only within the state. When it comes to protecting Tamil Nadu's interests, we are one.' In stark contrast, look at Andhra Pradesh's YSRCP, a Congress offshoot led by former chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. They shamelessly wrote to Singapore, urging them to withhold investments in Andhra Pradesh, citing a potential change in government at a time when the incumbent Chief Minister and the official delegation were in talks to attract investments to the state. And in Delhi, the Congress and allies act in a similar fashion — prioritising petty politics over national interest. During the parliamentary discussion on the military operations that neutralised terrorists and upheld national honour, Congress and its allies insulted the armed forces by questioning the names of the operations — Operation Sindoor and Operation Mahadev — calling them communal and divisive. Seriously? They don't ask how our armed forces entered deep into Pakistani territory, destroyed their airbase and effectively called Pakistan's nuclear bluff and how the homemade missiles caught the attention of the world and how our forces neutralised drones. Instead, they obsess over how many aircraft India may have lost and why the operation was named 'Mahadev,' even going so far as to claim—without a shred of evidence—that five jets were downed. What a distorted sense of priorities. Some argue that terrorists don't care about religion when they kill. But how can they dismiss the words of a young widow whose husband was brutally murdered before her eyes—after the terrorists explicitly asked about their religion? Former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram even shamelessly asked, 'Where is the proof that they came from Pakistan? They could be home-grown terrorists.' Does he want to be Pakistan's defence lawyer? Is there no empathy left in the Congress leadership for the families of those who died in the Pahalgam attack? The grieving families found some solace on coming to know that the killers were neutralised. But the opposition? They were busy crafting conspiracy theories and playing communal politics. Their hatred for the current government has become so blind that they've started echoing the words of US President Donald Trump over the statements made by India's own ministers in Parliament. Trump falsely claimed on multiple occasions that he brokered peace between India and Pakistan. The opposition clowns couldn't even decide how many times Trump said it — some said 25, Rahul said 29. Maybe they should learn basic arithmetic before jumping into geopolitics. They should have also spoken about Trump's theatrics of sharing an AI-generated video of the arrest of former president of US Barack Obama, something which is not expected from people in such high positions. When Trump called India's economy 'dead,' Rahul Gandhi — ever eager to join anyone who criticises the country just to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi — promptly echoed the statement. But Trump's comment wasn't surprising, considering that the U.S. is now courting Pakistan to explore so-called 'massive oil reserves.' This has sparked scepticism: Does Pakistan really have oil reserves significant enough to attract major American interest? Official Pakistani data tells a different story. In 2019, Pakistan produced only 89,030 barrels of crude oil per day. By 2025, this figure is projected to fall further to 64,262 barrels per day — hardly a sign of a booming oil economy. Meanwhile, what truly seems to irk the U.S. — and by extension, Trump — is that India has become the world's fourth-largest economy, trailing only the US, China and Germany. Even more disruptive was India's launch of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) — a revolutionary digital platform that brought cashless convenience to over one billion people, many of whom never had access to traditional banking systems. While much of the developed world remains tethered to credit cards and slow, fee-laden payment models, UPI leapfrogged ahead — empowering everyone from small-time vendors to global entrepreneurs. India's digital economy is flourishing. Per capita income has doubled in the last 11 years, and the country is now a global leader in GDP growth. In such a scenario, calling the Indian economy 'dead' is not just false — it's absurd. When your country is unfairly criticised, a patriot stands up in its defence. But not Rahul Gandhi — for him, attacking Modi takes precedence over defending India. Rahul, as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, demanded 'proof' of Operation Sindoor's success. But he must now explain a far more serious issue: Who was responsible for the 2008 Malegaon blasts? He must stop ducking the issue and apologise for maligning individuals like Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit and Major Ramesh Upadhyay, who lost 17 crucial years of their lives to false accusations. The courts have since dismissed the so-called 'saffron terror' narrative. If not them, then who was behind the blasts? Will Congress take responsibility? Will they apologise or offer restitution? Unlikely. Instead, Rahul Gandhi continues to deflect with lines like, 'Don't divert the issue. The real issue is India's economy is dead.' But that's the real tragedy — a politics devoid of accountability, humility, or truth. Sonia Gandhi, who chaired the UPA at the time, and Rahul Gandhi must break their silence. Justice delayed was grave enough — justice denied would be unforgivable. And now, the same bunch dares to call Operation Mahadev communal! Do they not know that naming military operations is the prerogative of the armed forces, often based on geography, symbolism, or historical references? Under Congress rule, there were operations like: Operation Vijay; Operation Meghdoot; Operation Shivalik and Operation Devi Shakti. Were these names not Hindu references? Were those operations communal? Of course not. Each Indian army regiment has its own battle cry: Gorkha Rifles: 'Jai Maa Kali, Ayo Gorkhali!' Rajputana Rifles: 'Raja Ram Chandra Ki Jai!' Kumaon Regiment: 'Kalika Mata Ki Jai!' Sikh Regiment: 'Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal!' These are not signs of communalism — they are signs of regimental spirit, heritage, and pride. The Congress and its allies need to understand that secularism does not mean mocking Hinduism at every opportunity. It means equal respect for all religions. But unfortunately, they see religious insult only in Hindu expressions, while bending over backwards to appease others. Their attempts to peddle fear and division have backfired. Even the minorities they claim to champion see through this farce now. The Congress no longer understands the pulse of the people — their outdated politics of appeasement, victimhood, and communal blame-game have rendered them irrelevant in modern India. It's high time the Congress stops pretending to be asleep — or else, they will sleepwalk into another electoral disaster in 2029. (The author is former Chief Editor of The Hans India)
Hans India
18 minutes ago
- Hans India
MP R. Krishnaiah Accuses Congress of Betrayal on BC Reservation Promises
Hyderabad: Member of Parliament and BJP leader R. Krishnaiah made strong accusations against the ruling Congress government. He alleged that the government had deliberately neglected the welfare of the Backwards Classes (BC) despite its commitments made in the Kamareddy BC Declaration. Addressing the media on Friday, Krishnaiah criticised the Congress for failing to implement the promised 42% BC reservation. He claimed that the party was shifting responsibility by blaming the central government and the BJP. He pointed out that under Constitutional Amendments 73 and 74, specifically Clause 243D(6), state governments have the authority to decide local body reservations, which means the current Congress-led government could act immediately. He further alleged that the Congress was falsely claiming that the BJP had blocked the reservation bill, despite the BJP's declared support for also mentioned that no Government Order (GO) has been issued, even after the Assembly approved the measure. According to Krishnaiah, reservations should be based on caste professions rather than religion; he argued that including Muslims undermines the genuine representation of BC communities. Krishnaiah referenced past injustices, such as the diversion of 4% central BC reservation to Muslims under the UPA government, and condemned religious-based quotas. He cited Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's views, emphasising that reservations should specifically address caste-based discrimination. He commended the Modi government for conducting a national caste census, granting constitutional status to the National BC Commission, and launching initiatives like the PM Vishwakarma Yojana to support caste professions. He also criticised Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for questioning the Prime Minister's identity concerning BC interests. Krishnaiah called on all BC leaders and groups to participate in a Mahadharna at Indira Park on August 2, demanding the implementation of the Kamareddy Declaration and exposing what he claimed were Congress's double standards. Krishnaiah stated that the Congress government lacks sincerity and transparency, asserting that only the BJP is genuinely committed to the empowerment of Backwards Classes.
