A notice allegedly issued by the Bangladesh Jamiyat Ahl-Al-Hadith purportedly announcing rates for converting Hindu women into Islam is circulating widely on social media. Several Indian Right Wing users have shared the notice, which is in Bengali.
Verified Right Wing X (Twitter) account @_treeni shared screenshots of the notice, including one with an English translation. According to the notice, the rate for converting a Brahmin woman is 3 lakh Taka, an Indian Bengali woman is 2 lakh Taka, a ‘Namashudra’ (scheduled caste) woman is 50,000 Taka and an entire family is 5 lakh Taka. The user also wrote that the “Bangladesh Cyber Team hacked a Facebook page run by Islamists of Bangladesh” and exposed a “sinister Islamist plan.” (Archive)
The tweet was later deleted.
The same notice was shared with the same claim by another Right Wing user @jpsin1, who is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Archive)
“हिन्दू ब्राम्हण लड़की को लव जिहाद में फंसाओ 3 लाख बांग्लादेशी टका पाओ”
“हिन्दू नामशुद यानी दलित लड़की को लव जिहाद में फंसाओ 50 हजार बांग्लादेशी टका पाओ”
“भारतीय बंगाली लड़की को लव जिहाद में फंसाओ 2 लाख बांग्लादेशी टका पाओ”
“पूरी हिंदू फैमिली को इस्लाम में कन्वर्ट करो 5 लाख… pic.twitter.com/XNEAI0IcEz
— 🇮🇳Jitendra pratap singh🇮🇳 (@jpsin1) April 3, 2024
Verified user @atsshow7 tweeted also tweeted the same notice. “By feeding you the bhaang of brotherhood, your downfall is being orchestrated, and you’re unaware of it. (Now recognize those who are opposing CAA in India)”, he wrote. (Archive)
ये होता है लव जिहाद. हिंदू लड़की पटाने का रेट लिस्ट
– नामशूद्र (दलित) लड़की के 50 हजार
– भारतीय बंगाली लड़की के 2 लाख
– ब्राह्मण लड़की के 3 लाख
– पूरे परिवार के 5 लाखभाईचारे की भांग पिलाकर आपका पतन कैसे किया जा रहा है, आपको पता नहीं चल रहा |
(अब आप उनको पहचानिए जो CAA का भारत… pic.twitter.com/Y5B2rLwhhU— The Abhishek Tiwary Show (@atsshow7) April 3, 2024
Several other users shared the purported notice, amplifying the viral claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)
Fact Check
Upon a closer look at the notice, we observed that the date of the notice was February 6, 2022.
On the official page of Bangladesh Jamiyat Ahl-Al-Hadith, we screened through all the posts. We found that while nothing had been uploaded to the website on February 6, two notices had been posted on February 7, both of which were dated February 6. One of them matched the reference number on the viral image.
In the viral image, it can be observed that the phrase “বিশেষ বিজ্ঞপ্তি” (Special Notice) (circled in yellow) has been aligned with the salutation of the notice, a faux pas rarely seen in official letters. Additionally, the word “ধন্যবাদান্তে” (Thanking You) (circled in green) is also placed in the same line as the body of the letter, which is another rare oversight in official correspondence. In the original notice, one can clearly see that this word comes after the body of the notice. All of these flaws point to the fact that the content of the notice in the viral image, announcing rates of converting Hindus, had been morphed into the original notice.
The original notice found on the official site is a brief about the decisions made in the fourth meeting of the governing council of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Hadith on February 5, 2022, emphasizing the promotion of Quranic and Hadith education among Muslim citizens. It announced that regular Quran and Hadith classes would be initiated in the mosques of all branches within the organizational jurisdiction of the district, urging the recipients to make necessary arrangements for their respective areas.
Below is a Google-translated version of the original notice:
Hence, a notice from February 2022, taken from the Bangladesh Jamiyat Ahl-Al-Hadith website, has been morphed and amplified by Indian Right Wing users. The morphed image purportedly showed rates for converting Hindu women in Bangladesh when, in reality, the notice was about the initiation of regular Quran and Hadith classes in all affiliated mosques.
False claims about rate cards for converting Hindus into Islam have been amplified by the Right Wing ecosystem several times in the past. Alt News debunked these claims. A related report can be found here. In 2017, Times Now ran a primetime report on the topic based on a photoshopped image.
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