Ghaziabad: At tea stall outside Jama Masjid in Ghaziabad’s Sector 23, residents have gathered to discuss strategies for preventing their children from playing online games. One of them, Ravi, suggested confiscating his son’s mobile phone, while Sunny plans to monitor his son.
Their problem isn’t gaming, actually. It is more sinister. They say gaming is the new portal for Islamic conversions.
“We are shocked. A young boy from the nearby locality was converted. We have no other option but to keep our children safe by monitoring their activities,” Ravi said, scratching his beard.
Ghaziabad finds itself embroiled in a new phenomenon – Game Jihad – that has sparked anxiety among parents and has left the youth worried. At the heart of this tension is Jain boy’s alleged conversion to Islam while playing the online game Fortnite.
The incident came to light after an FIR was registered on 30 May at Ghaziabad’s Kavi Nagar police station based on the complaint of the minor’s parents alleging that their “son was lured into accepting Islam while playing an online game.”
A month before the fathers’ complaint, a committee from Sector 23 Jama Masjid had met the Commissioner of Police, Ghaziabad, Ajay Mishra informing them that two Hindu boys were offering prayers at the mosque.
“During our investigation, we learnt that four were involved in this conversion racket. One from Ghaziabad and one each from Faridabad, Maharashtra and Ludhiana. The four of them were involved through the gaming application,” said ACP Abhishek Srivastava.
Also read: Ayodhya Ram temple getting darshan-ready, mosque short on funds, map stuck
‘Our son behaved strangely’
Under the pretense of going to the gym, the minor would go to Sector 23 Jama Masjid five times a day to offer namaz, the complaint by the minor’s father alleged.
“When I became suspicious, I started following my son. I was shocked to learn that instead of the gym, my son was going to the Sector 23 Jama Masjid,” the complaint accessed by ThePrint read.
When the minor was confronted, he said that he has accepted Islam as “he found the religion better”. That’s when the father checked his son’s laptop and mobile phone and learned about his online gaming friends.
One of the minors’ online gaming friends, Baddo (30) is the key accused in the conversion racket. Baddo aka Shahnawaz Masqood lives in Maharashtra and is currently on the run. A joint team of Ghaziabad police, Special Operations Group (SOG) and Cyber police are actively searching for him in Maharashtra in connection with the case.
The alleged conversion racket started during the Covid-induced lockdown in 2020 when schools were shut and teenagers exposed to online classes. This is when the minors from Faridabad, Ludhiana, Maharashtra and Ghaziabad virtually met Baddo at a gaming platform called Fortnite. On platforms like Fortnite, one can chat fellow gamers.
The police said that after the game, the minors would also chat on the instant messaging application Discord.
The first alleged conversion that came to light was of the Jain boy from Ghaziabad. During his visits to the Ghaziabad Jama Masjid, he came in touch with Abdul Rehman, alias Nanni. Nanni and the minor would exchange WhatsApp texts discussing how to be a good Muslim. In one such conversation accessed by ThePrint, Nanni encouraged the minor to have a strong dedication to Allah.
“Dil mei tadap rakho. Namaz aada karo [Be desperate (for Allah). Offer Namaz],” read one of the messages in their chat.
Rehman alias Nanni, a masjid committee member was arrested on 4 June. However, no connection between Baddo and Nanni has yet been established by the police.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPRC) has written to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) to initiate an enquiry against the online gaming platform Fortnite and the instant messaging application “Discord”.
Fortnite was released in 2017 and won the Kids choice favourite video game award in 2021. The game is played by four players as a group that is tasked with fighting off zombie-like creatures and building fortifications. The messaging app Discord is the a popular chat service used by gamers.
The commission has said that “The minor boy was lured into conversation through the said gaming platform, Fortnite and then brainwashed into religious conversion over another social platform, Discord.”
Also read: Indian science communicators are fighting for freedom from jargon. Scientists push back
‘My son is depressed’
A minor from Faridabad and another from Ludhiana were also victims of online gaming, according to the Ghaziabad police.
The mother of the Faridabad minor has said that though her son never offered namaz, he was repeatedly insisted on by other boys he met on the gaming platform.
“My son would receive messages having videos of Zakir Nayak giving sermons and quick steps to perform namaz but he never responded to such messages,” the mother told ThePrint over phone.
She said that the police investigation has made her son depressed. “Once my son broke down during the interrogation. The police are repeatedly asking him about the conversion. He has no role to play. This is nonsense,” she added.
It was the Ghaziabad minor who allegedly insisted other minors from Faridabad and Ludhiana to convert “in the name of dawa”, said the police.
The Ludhiana minor’s father has also refuted allegations about his son’s conversion to Islam but said that the online gamers tried to influence him.
“I am very worried because of the news saying that my son has converted. The boys on the gaming platform were coaxing my son to convert but he didn’t,” the father said.
Parents of minors, both from Ludhiana and Faridabad, alleged that their sons were given locations of the nearby mosque where they could go to offer namaz.
Also read: Lab-diamond boom divides Surat. ‘If everyone had Kohinoor, would it still have value?’
Unusual for the mixed neighborhood
In Ghaziabad’s Sector 23, twelve houses belonging to Hindus and Muslims are located opposite the Jama Masjid. Of these, five houses belong to Hindus and seven to Muslims. There is a palpable anxiety in the air and the locals are talking about the conversion in hushed tones. The Jama Masjid has shut its door to the media persons and the Imam is refusing to talk.
For the past one week, 70-year-old Parvesh Sharma, a resident of sector 23, spends his evenings strolling near the Masjid answering media persons. He exalts the Hindu-Muslim unity in the area.
“I have been living here for the past 35 years. And this masjid has been here. But never have I heard anything like this. It is very strange.”
He is joined by Mohammad Aarif, his next-door neighbour, who chimed in sharing anecdotes from the pandemic days when both Hindus and Muslims helped each other.
Omendar Kashyap, a Bajrang Dal member, held Aarif’s hands and hugged him.
“We don’t how much truth is in these conversions but this not going to ruin our friendships,” added Aarif.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)