Online posts shared hundreds of times in India have falsely claimed that an Islamist group in neighboring Bangladesh was advertising cash payments to anyone who could convert Hindu girls to Islam. AFP found several visual inconsistencies with the message, showing that it had been spoofed based on an unrelated notification. The group has denied offering cash for conversions.
The message purporting to be from Ahl-Al-Hadith – a non-political Islamic group in Bangladesh – was shared here on X on April 3, 2024, along with a Hindi caption.
In English, it translated as follows: “Trap a Hindu girl and win up to Rs 3 lakh ($3,591); convert a Hindu family and get Rs 5 lakh ($5,986). Horrible Islamic fundamentalist scheme exposed.”
The caption further read: “Bangladesh Cyber Team has hacked a Facebook page run by Bangladeshi Islamists.
“After this, shocking facts came to light: A reward of Rs 3 lakh has been offered for the conversion of a Hindu-Brahmin girl. A reward of Rs 2 lakh ($2,394) for an Indian Bengali girl, and Rs 5 lakh for the conversion. from a Hindu family.”
The post contained two notices with a similar message: one written in the Bengali language and another that appears to be an English translation of it.
They both contained what appeared to be an official postage stamp for the Bangladesh-based group Ahl-Al-Hadith, as seen in the screenshot below:
The notices were shared on Facebook here and here with similar false claims; and on X here.
Amended notice
The message shared in the fake post contained the full name of the Islamic group ‘Bangladesh Jamiyat Ahl-Al-Hadith’ in the top left corner.
Below, two scripts – Bangla and Arabic – were used in the spoofed part of the notice referring to cash rewards for conversions, as highlighted in blue by AFP:
In response to the false reports, the group posted a clarification message on its official Facebook page on April 4, 2024.
The Bangla language caption of the post was partially translated as: “We came to know that a fake circular is being shared on social media posts with false claims.
“Ahl-Al-Hadith of Bangladesh Jamiyat strongly condemns this baseless, conspiratorial and false notice and calls on the country’s law and order forces to take action against all those who are misleading people by creating and spreading this false notice. ”
The original circular was published on the organization’s official website here on February 7, 2022 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the message in the fake message (left) and the original message from the group’s official website (right), with the similarities highlighted in red by AFP:
A reporter from AFP’s Bangladesh team compared the forged message with the original message and found that they both had the same reference number, date, official stamp and letterhead.
The original notice made no reference to a cash reward for conversions.
A spokesperson for Ahl-Al-Hadith told AFP that the original document had been digitally altered and shared online with false claims.
“One of our 2022 circulars was digitally adapted and shared online, in which we had made a call to each of our local committees to organize learning sessions on the Quran Hadith. There is no mention of converting Hindus or giving money,” he said.
