Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan: Maulana Tauqeer Raza, president of Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IEMC), is once again in the news. He has announced to convert 5 couples to Islam and organize a mass Nikah program at Khalil Higher Secondary School, Bareilly on July 21 at 11 am. For this, he has written a letter to the district administration and sought permission. Some of these couples are from Madhya Pradesh and the rest are from different districts of UP.
Maulana Tauqeer Raja has said that the identity of the couples is not being revealed for security reasons. He claims that he has 23 such applications in which they have expressed their desire to convert to Islam. There are 15 girls and 8 boys in them. Maulana said that many Muslim girls have converted to Hinduism, but no Hindu organization has objected to this. Therefore, no religious organization will oppose our program.
Tauqeer Raja said, we had imposed a ban that if any young man or woman wants to convert to Islam by getting tempted or falling in love with someone, then he or she will not be allowed to do so, but there was a lot of pressure for the last few days. In which it was revealed that there are many young men and women here who are studying and working simultaneously. Due to this, they have also formed relationships and in many places they are living in live-in relationships.
Maulana said that many of these young men and women have already accepted Islam, we will convert them to Islam as per the procedure in a mass program. Tauqeer Gadda said, “I don't think we are going to do anything illegal.” All adults have the right to decide their religion and matters themselves. Of the five couples to be married in the first phase, one is from MP and the rest are from around Bareilly.
Who is Maulana Tauqeer Raja Khan?
Maulana Tauqeer Raja is a religious leader from Bareilly. He hails from the Ala Hazrat family, who started the Sunni Barelvi sect of Islam. He formed his own political party called Ittehad-e-Millat Council in 2001. In its first election, his party won 10 municipal seats. In 2009, Gadha joined the Congress. He appealed to Muslim voters to vote for Congress candidate Praveen Singh Aron. In this election, Congress candidate Aron defeated 6-time BJP MP Santosh Gangwar from Bareilly.
The party merged with SP
On 2 March 2010, Tauqeer Gadda was arrested by the police in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh on charges of inciting communal riots. In the 2012 UP assembly elections, Tauqeer Raja supported the Samajwadi Party. His party also won the election from Bhojipura. In 2013, the Akhilesh Yadav government made Tauqeer Raja the vice-president of the Handloom Corporation. He announced the merger of his party with the SP. After the riots in Muzaffarnagar this year, he resigned from the post and announced his separation from the SP. In 2014, Tauqeer Raja supported Mayawati's party BSP.
Hindus were in danger due to the holiday
In the year 2007, Tauqeer Raja had issued a fatwa against Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen. He announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh to anyone who would bring Taslima's head. This Maulana had threatened Hindus while addressing a religious program in Bareilly in 2022. He said, I want to warn my Hindu brothers. I fear that the day my Muslim youth will be forced to take the law into their own hands, you will not find any place to hide in India.