On 15th July, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi from Bareilly stirred controversy while commenting on Love Jihad, he made a shocking statement that ‘Muslim youth make mistakes’ and brushed off the criminality behind hiding identity to lure Hindu women into a relationship and forcing them to convert to Islam. He conceded that hiding identity, wearing kalawa and applying tilak to lure non-Muslim women is against Sharia but at the same time found no criminal basis for Muslim men indulging in such activities. He added that such actions should not be labelled as Love Jihad.
Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh: On the Changur Baba case, All India Muslim Jamaat’s National President, Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi says, "The way Jalaluddin, alias Changur Baba, carried out religious conversions—as suggested by the reports coming in—indicates that he acted… pic.twitter.com/Rg0744vmeJ
— IANS (@ians_india) July 15, 2025
He compared illegal religious conversions by Muslim youth to ghar wapsi campaigns conducted by Hindu saints. Referring to Jalaluddin alias Changur Baba gang, the Maulana admitted that his activities amount to unlawful conversions. However, he claimed that similar actions by Hindu religious figures are termed ghar wapsi and not treated as illegal.
Maulana Shahabuddin also dismissed any notion of organised conspiracy and argued that what is termed Love Jihad is actually mutual affection between Hindu girls and Muslim boys. According to him, Islam does not permit forced conversions and there is no planning behind such cases.
