Umar Gautam

They also arrested two Muslim preachers, Mohammad Umar Gautam (57) and Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi (52), who were residents of Jamia Nagar and ran their conversion factory from a high-rise in Delhi’s Batla House. Investigations have revealed harrowing details, corroborating the involvement of several Muslim heavyweights, including politicians and eminent citizens, in this conversion racket.

The ringleader, Muhammad Umar Gautam, was born in a Hindu family, but embraced Islam in 1984 after being deeply influenced by his Muslim friend and neighbor, Nasir Khan. Gautam was in his early twenties at the time of conversion and was pursuing his Masters degree in Science. Claiming to be a distant relative of former Indian Prime Minister Vishvanath Pratap Singh, Gautam was disowned by his family immediately after they learned of his religious conversion. However, in the years to come, Umar Gautam would be successful in bringing his mother and wife into the fold of Islam. In one of his videos, he acknowledges having invited Prime Minister VP Singh to embrace Islam; that was a failed attempt.

After converting to Islam, Muhammad Umar Gautam earned a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia. He then took teaching jobs, first at Jamia and later at Hamdard University. However, Umar began his “revert all” business from the day he had entered the Islamist cult.

Revert? Yes. Muslims believe that all humans are born as Muslims, into the one true religion, Islam, that was created by the one true God, Allah. Here in the mortal world, they take up various not-so-true religions, such as Hinduism, Christianity, and Buddhism, and others. So when non-Muslims embrace Islam, in their view they do not convert, but revert to the original true religion into which they were born.

For years, Umar Gautam worked in different capacities to engage, influence and proselytize more and more people to revert to Islam. He was associated with Markazul Ma’arif Education & Research Centre, a trust run by parliamentarian from the Islamist AIDUF party, Maulana Badaruddin Ajmal at Hojai, Assam. The trust is known to teach computer education and English to madrasa graduates who show ability in mastering the English language. This skill comes in handy as they socialize with non-Muslims in the wider world and usher them into the Islamic fold. 

Having on-the-job experience, Umar Gautam relocated to Jamia Nagar in Delhi in 2010, this time to start something of his own: the Islamic Dawah Center (IDC). The IDC is the illegal conversion factory he set up with the sole aim of converting non-Muslims to Islam. He was getting funds for these anti-social activities from various dubious channels. He had not severed his contacts with the Muslim politician Badruddin Ajmal, and his congregations were attended by Maulana Mohammad Asrarul Haque Qasmi, a Muslim parliamentarian from the Congress party. The Congress politician had, in fact, expressed his disappointment in the organization for not bringing enough non-Muslims into the path of peace by giving them the “message of humanity.” A renowned industrialist and the chairman of Himalaya Drugs, Dr Syed Farooq, was one of the chief guests at the 2017 Annual Meet for Muslim reverts that was organized by the IDC.

The IDC didn’t stop just at converting non-Muslims to Islam. They created a web wherein every revert acted as a converter, bringing more “Naya Mullahs” (reverts) into the fold, and these Naya Mullahs would, in turn, spread out to bring in still more Naya Mullahs.

One woman, Shifa, was Shikha. She was groomed into Islam as a class 10 student, and convinced both her younger sisters to embrace the “one true religion.”

Aisha used to be Renuka, and was encouraged to choose Islam during her student days at the Jamia Milia Islamia in 1995. She converted dozens of Naya Mullahs after her own conversion.

These Naya Mullahs are mostly educated youth from well-off families. They are professionally qualified and are well-settled in their careers. One would wonder why such educated youth would relinquish their faith and adopt another.

The conversion techniques employed by the IDC are exceptionally well-crafted and convincing, almost like the ones adopted by the fugitive and radical Islamic preacher Zakir Naik. Most modern Hindu families do not impart religious education to their children. Hence it becomes easy for the likes of Umar Gautam to target these Hindu youth, and to make them second-guess their religious practices. They are presented with contorted logic and explanations of spirituality, and misled into believing in the superiority of Islam. Some are also lured in exchange for wealth, jobs and junkets.

Umar Gautam’s conversion programs are not limited to India. As per the latest reports, he had been to Britain 18 times, and visited the US four times, all in order to further his agenda.