NCPCR wants gaming app Fortnite, messaging platform Discord probed over conversion of minors to Islam

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to initiate an enquiry against online gaming platform – Fornite, and instant messaging social platform – Discord for their alleged role in religious conversion of a minor Jain boy and two other Hindu boys in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad.

The commission has requested for an action-taken report submitted to them within 10 days.

In a letter to the Secretary of MeitY, Alkesh Kumar Sharma, NCPCR’s Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo wrote that it had come across a news article, wherein it was informed that two men, including a caretaker of a mosque in Ghaziabad and a man from Mumbai man, were involved in religious conversion of a minor boy through Fortnite.

The commission further said that the minor boy was lured into conversation through the gaming platform – Fortnite and then brainwashed into religious conversion over Discord.

“The need to incorporate an effective framework to bar minors from accessing prohibited websites along with punishments is of utmost importance for the Commission… It is further to be enquired about the availability of such alleged online gaming platform over Android and iOS interfaces or on any browser… the Commission in best interest of the children deems it appropriate to ensure that best efforts are made to monitor the framework of such online gaming applications with respect to the restriction of the minor children to these platforms,” The NCPCR said.

On 5 June, a day before NCPCR sent the letter MeitY, Firstpost reported that the Ghaziabad police busted an online racket and arrested a man for running a syndicate in collusion with a Mumbai-based. They were allegedly using online gaming app to target children and teenagers, and luring them to convert to Islam.

Also Read: Games People Play: A guide to how you can be trapped to convert to Islam via an online game

The cops, on Sunday, arrested a cleric at a mosque in Sanjay Nagar area in Ghaziabad and a search for the second accused, who hails from Thane in Maharashtra, was underway.

Police informed that a case of religious conversion was registered on 30 May at Kavi Nagar Police Station, in which two people were named and were identified as Shahnawaz Khan alias Baddo, a resident of Thane and Nanni alias Abdul Rehman, a Maulvi at a mosque in Sanjay Nagar area.

“Rehman has been arrested,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Ghaziabad, Nipun Agarwal.

During the investigation, the role of Rehman in the conversion of a minor Jain boy and two Hindu boys was found, the DCP of Ghaziabad said, adding that cops have seized electronic evidence and affidavits related to it.

As per the police, the modus operandi was to target teenagers via the online game, which required users to recite verses from the Quran in order to win. The DCP also informed that the teenage gamers were also shown videos of radical Muslim preachers Zakir Naik and Tariq Jameel.

“The accused also used to talk with the gamers (children) through a chat application and there they were shown videos of Zakir Naik and Tariq Jameel to persuade them to convert,” DCP Ghaziabad City said.

With inputs from agencies

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