Can you PLEASE put your article inside quote marks and your comments outside it.

Makes it much easier to read.

Back to the topic at and and I must say this is the first I have heard of it. Without figures and statistics this sounds like alot of hot air.

i know one hindu girl who converted to islam of her own accord, and one sikh girl who did the same. The hindu girl is hiding it from her parents, so she's only practising what is possible without them knowing. The sikh girl is practising fully her parents and cousins are well aware. Her parents didn't kick her out the house, in fact they still have an excellent relationship. They don;t appear to hate muslims i know them very well indeed.

No one can force u to change religions in this country even if they hold a gun to your head and you take the shahadah if u don't believe in it it won't be accepted of u and you won;t be muslim. I agree this article is just full of venom all baseless, it's such a tragic lie.

Sure guys may ask their girlfriends to change religion for marriage (right/wrong sep. issue) but no one can force them to do anything it's insane!

SO WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO MUSLIM SWHO AR EAPPARENTLY FORCING HINDUS TO CONERT?

AND IF THEY ARE DOING THIS, SURELY TEH POLICE CAN AND SHOULD ACT?

DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANYONE FORCED TO EMBRACE ISLAM?

THE ARTICLE I READ ON THIS MENTIONED HT AND AL MUHAJIROUN INVOLVED IN THIS... I DOUBT THIS BUT I WONT BE SURPRISED.... ESPECIALLY WITH AL MUHAJIROUN, WITH THE LIKES OF ANJUM CHAUDRY, IZZADEEN AND THE WAY THEY HATE NON MUSLIMS.....

sorry about the caps lock...just realised... so i'm not shouting... ive just come out of rehab:-)

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT THOSE WHO SHOUT ALL THE TIME?

Good thing you realised.

No point playing the blame game. Take every instance on its own merit.

If it does happen, do something.

did somebody find this letter to the editor:

Quote:

'FORCED CONVERSIONS' MYTH MONGERING BY BRITISH POLICE

25 February 2007

Letter to The Guardian (UK)

Dear Editor

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair's
recent announcement that the police and
universities are working together to target
'extremist Muslims who force vulnerable teenage
Hindu and Sikh girls to convert to Islam' is
disturbing. This statement has been made on the
basis of claims by the Hindu Forum of Britain who
have not presented any evidence that such 'forced
conversions' are taking place. In fact the notion
of 'forced conversions' of young Hindu women to
Islam is part of an arsenal of myths propagated
by right-wing Hindu supremacist organisations in
India and used to incite violence against
minorities. For example, inflammatory leaflets
referring to such 'conversions' were in
circulation before the massacres of the Muslim
minority in Gujarat exactly five years ago which
left approximately 2,000 dead and over 200,000
displaced.

It is highly irresponsible to treat such
allegations at face value or as representative of
the views of Hindus in general.

While we would condemn any type of pressure on
young women to conform to religious beliefs or
practices (whether of their own community or
another) we can only see Sir Ian Blair's
statement as contributing to the further
stigmatising of the Muslim community as a whole
and as a pretext for further assaults on civil
liberties in Britain.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Meena Dhanda, University of Wolverhampton, Dr
Subir Sinha SOAS, University of London, Dr
Rashmi Varma, University of Warwick, Dr Kalpana
Wilson, SOAS, University of London, Dr Anandi
Ramamurthy, University of Central Lancashire, Dr
Manali Desai, University of Kent, Dr Pritam Singh
Oxford Brookes University, Dr Sharad Chari,
London School of Economics.

Can you give us a link?

why should the police waste time with this there are far more important criminal acts taking place, resources are tight as it is.Id rather the police attend a real crime scene where someone actually needs life/death assistance rather than going to the masjids to look for ppl being forced to convert. It's such a farce.

You can't force anyone to convert to any religion if their intentions aren't sincere no matter what words they utter they will never be muslim, christian, hindu etc etc. Also the police can't really arrest somone for making someone utter some words, next you'll be arresting ppl on the basis of bad langauge?

if ppl are however being physically attacked or threatened then of course that's an offence and police should get involved as should muslims who are aware of what is happening.

I've never heard even one case study of this happening, show me some concrete evidence and i may just believe it, before that it just sounds like a sensationalist headline. You can't go on the basis of one news report to make such a profound allegation can you?

hmmm, so all you uni students, ever heard of this occuring?

I knew a Sikh lady who reverted. She studied Islam for approximatley 2 years.

[size=18][b]Muslims accused of blackmail to make student girls convert[/b][/size]

From [url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article1464601.ece]The Times[/url]
March 03, 2007
Nicola Woolcock

Radical Muslims are being accused of blackmailing young Hindu and Sikh women into changing religion in “groomed conversions” on campuses.

The men aggressively target vulnerable university students by using the fear of being dishonoured to force them to convert, community leaders have told The Times. Many befriend their victims, then threaten to tell their families that they are in a sexual relationship with a Muslim. Some teenagers are said to have been drugged and photographed in compromising positions.

Many comply because they are so afraid of shaming their parents or being rejected by their communities.

Police are aware of the problem. Sir Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, recently attended a Hindu conference where the issue was raised. But police are powerless to act unless incidents are reported. This rarely happens because the stigma of a child converting to Islam often silences Sikh and Hindu parents.

Community elders say that the practice is widespread but their estimates vary from 100 annual incidents nationwide to 120 in the past few months in the South East alone.

Ranjeet Singh, of the British Organisation of Sikh Students, said: “There are cases of aggressive techniques, of drugging and of rape, of the man taking photos and blackmailing the girls into converting.

“They know that by dishonouring the girls, they will make their families disown them. In the past few months there have been about 120 cases in Luton and the South East. It’s a problem that has been going on for a while, but a lot of people are reluctant to come forward and there’s not much being done.

“It’s not the whole Muslim community, it’s extremist individuals. Some girls are very innocent and vulnerable when they go to university. Then they are befriended by these men. We know of some whose lives have been ruined.”

Some of the young women have suffered physical violence. Others have said that the men claimed to have been paid to convert their victims.

Ramesh Kallidai, secretary-general of the Hindu Forum of Britain, said: “The main problem is these girls feel very vulnerable and intimidated by these men. They talk about it to their friends, who tell us what is happening, but don’t want to speak to the police. Some families are completely broken apart by it. It becomes difficult to admit in public.

“One girl was beaten up when she refused to convert. She is petrified. She only spoke to one other girl about it, who contacted us.”

One Sikh organisation sets up telephone helplines and arranges visits to temples to raise awareness of the problem. Its leader, who wishes his identity and the group’s to remain anonymous, said: “This is very much taboo. These issues have been going on for many years and come to the boil at university.

“I deal with many very serious cases. There are horrific examples of abuse and blackmail, with men saying they’re going to tell the girl’s parents. Then they’re pretty much trapped. We call it groomed conversions. Some of the girls go through with it because they feel they have no choice.

“The men start a relationship with them, with the agenda of conversion down the line. Sometimes they take a picture of her in a compromising position. It’s so easy with camera phones. An 18-year-old girl ends up in a situation that she can’t control.”

He said that the extremists were exploiting the Sikh community’s tendency to treat conversion as a grave dishonour, adding: “That’s a cultural mindset we need to tackle. It’s the worst thing you could face — worse than bankruptcy or losing your job.”

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman confirmed that officers had attended a Hindu security conference last month. She said: “We are aware of it as an issue that concerns the Hindu community but are not aware, without further research, of any specific incidents reported to police. We would encourage anyone who has been targeted in this way to seek help.”

That's messed up... Where are the parents?! And more importantly where are the parents shotguns?!? I know what I'd be doing if I disapproved of [b]anything[/b] boys were doing with my little girls. - Reloading.

????

I swear that is so twisted…and I don’t understand why I’ve never heard or come across this issue.

I do know of a few cases from high school were a Sikh girl converted for her Muslim boyfriend…but in those cases, when the relationship ended, the girl converted back.

Conversion to Islam is to submit your heart, body, soul and mind to Allah (swt) willingly – this can definitely not be forced.

I ahve split this topic into two.

If you want to discuss apostacy, go [url=http://www.therevival.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3163]here[/url]:

[url=http://www.therevival.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3163]Apostacy 101[/url]

"Don Karnage" wrote:

That's messed up... Where are the parents?! And more importantly where are the parents shotguns?!? I know what I'd be doing if I disapproved of [b]anything[/b] boys were doing with my little girls. - Reloading.

With you 100%

yup exactly its the ak47 4 me mate

[b]MCB calls for evidence of alleged ‘forced conversions’[/b]

[i]After persistent reports of forced conversions of British Hindu and Sikh girls to Islam, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has called upon all concerned to publicise their evidence and hand it to the police authorities immediately.[/i]

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary-General of the MCB, said: "These allegations are not new. What is deeply worrying however is the continuing absence of any actual substantive evidence to corroborate them. We believe it is high time that the plaintiffs supply their evidence to the police and relevant authorities,"

If these reports prove to be true the MCB would unreservedly condemn the practice of forced conversion as it goes against a fundamental tenet of our religion - there is no compulsion in matters of faith.

Dr Abdul Bari added: "The MCB is fully prepared to co-operate with its Hindu and Sikh counterparts and the police to get to the root of these allegations and to ensure that the religious rights, freedom and dignity of all are respected.

In the absence of any hard evidence of forced conversions though, many British Muslims will suspect that this is an underhand attempt to smear them. People from all faiths and none should have the right to convert to other faiths if they so wish."

[url=http://www.themuslimweekly.com/fullstoryview.aspx?NewsID=DF82CF740193B2D...

[b]Stop using women for your own battles[/b]

by Savita on 25th February, 2007 at 7:56 pm

The story about Hindu and Sikh girls being forcibly converted by Islamist fundamentalists on university campuses, so carelessly thrown around in the media last week, has a whiff of urban myth about it.

Apparently, as reported by a number of papers yesterday including The Metro, Hindu leaders want their own “security force” to protect these vulnerable, empty-headed girls who are being targeted by sinister Muslim radicals and are paid “up to £5,000 for each success”.

So where is the evidence of this mass targeted campaign? Having researched around this area I understand there is some nail-biting among some Hindus and Sikh in ‘the communities’ that there are genuine cases where women have converted out of their faiths. But whenever I asked for evidence of these so called malicious campaigns there was always a “well it’s someone, who told someone, who knows someone that this happened to”.

I remember when I was around 14, a letter was circulated by an organisation called Khilafat in our local area warning Hindu/Sikh parents to look after their daughters because they were the prey of Muslims. It caused a huge amount of panic and for months we were house-bound and banned from doing any after-school activities. But no one found out who produced it.

The fears of conversion seem to be played upon by a number of different communities because it is highly emotive and it will get people’s backs up about the “demon other” and is the perfect justification for asserting aggressive religious identities.

We only need to look back 60 years when India was being carved up and the disgusting use of this weapon “converting our women” to see how Hindu, Sikh and Muslim (men) turned this fear into an ugly reality. An estimated 75,000 women were physically abducted and brutally assaulted by pople - in the name of what? Women’s bodies have always been an easy target in these struggles to define and defend communities and the fear of conversion is being abused to play communal cards in the UK once again.

On top of that, how patronising is this to Hindu and Sikh girls who have obviously been successful in their education to be in University to be told that they need to be protected because they obviously can’t think for themselves and make choices about their relationships and identities?

We’re not Sitas in the jungles who need circles of fire drawn around us to protect our divinity because the evil Ravan is hunting us down to get back at Ram. Take your chauvinist ego battles somewhere else, we’ve got better things to fight for.

[url=http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/1021]source[/url]

[b]South Asia Group sends open letter to Sir Ian Blair[/b]

The South Asia Solidarity group have sent an open letter to Sir Ian Blair regarding recent reports of ‘forced conversions’

Dear Ian Blair,

As academics teaching at British universities, we are disturbed by your recent announcement reported in the Daily Mail (22 February), Metro (23 February) and elsewhere, that the police and universities are working together to target extremist Muslims who force vulnerable teenage Hindu and Sikh girls to convert to Islam.

Your statements appear to have been made on the basis of claims by the Hindu Forum of Britain who have not presented any evidence that such forced conversions‚ are taking place. In fact the notion of forced conversions‚ of young Hindu women to Islam is part of an arsenal of myths propagated by right-wing Hindu supremacist organisations in India and used to incite violence against minorities. For example, inflammatory leaflets referring to such conversions‚ were in circulation before the massacres of the Muslim minority in Gujarat exactly five years ago which left approximately 2,000 dead and over 200,000 displaced.

In our view, it is highly irresponsible to treat such allegations at face value or as representative of the views of Hindus in general. While we would condemn any type of pressure on young women to conform to religious beliefs or practices (whether of their own community or another) we can only see statements such as yours as contributing to the further stigmatising of the Muslim community as a whole and as a pretext for further assaults on civil liberties in Britain.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Kalpana Wilson, SOAS, University of London, Dr Meena Dhanda, University of Wolverhampton, Dr Subir Sinha SOAS, University of London, Dr Rashmi Varma, University of Warwick, University of London, Dr Anandi Ramamurthy, University of Central Lancashire, Dr Manali Desai, University of Kent, Dr Pritam Singh Oxford Brookes University, Dr Sharad Chari, London School of Economics, Dr Navtej Purewal, University of Manchester, Dr Virinder Kalra, University of Manchester.

source: [url=http://www.awaazsaw.org/]here[/url] and [url=http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/1045]here[/url]