LUCKNOW: Under fire from the Muslim community for his book and statements against Prophet Mohammad and Islam, former chairman of Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board, Wasim Rizvi, adopted Hinduism on Monday.
Rizvi, who refused to say it was a conversion from Islam to Hinduism, offered milk on the Shiva Linga installed at Dasna Devi temple in Ghaziabad as part of the ritual in the presence of Yati Narsinghanand Giri at 10.30 am.
The ceremony was conducted amidst chanting of Vedic shlokas as Rizvi quit Islam and entered Hinduism after a yagna. He will be now associated with the Tyagi community and will now be known as Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi.
After entering into Santan way of life, Rizvi called the Sanatan Dharma as world’s oldest and the purest religion. He added that he chose the holy day of December 6 to convert to Hinduism as on this day, the Babari mosque was demolished in 1992.
“I will work for Hinduism from today. The votes of Muslims never go to any party. They only cast their votes to defeat Hindus,” Rizvi said while talking to media persons.
He refused to consider the ceremony as the conversion because he claimed that he was free to adopt any faith after being externed from Islam by the clerics and ulemas long back. Rizvi had been in the eye of the storm after releasing a book titled ‘Muhammad’ last month. He had also kicked up a row by approaching Supreme Court to get 26 verses of the Holy Quran omitted as he claimed that they were controversial and spread hatred in the society.
A whole lot of Muslim clerics had objected to the cover of Rizvi’s book that portrays a man with a semi-naked woman. They also accused Rizvi of making objectionable comments against Prophet Mohammad.
Some of the religious organisations, including the All-India Shia Personal Law Board (AISPLB), served notices on him, while a few approached the UP government seeking an FIR in the matter. Many Islamic organizations had announced booty on his head and a number of fatwas were also issued against Rizvi.
The book was released on November 4 at Dasna Devi temple at Ghaziabad in the presence of Narsinghanand Saraswati, but the issue snowballed on November 15 after Rizvi posted the cover page image and link of the book on his Facebook page.
Apart from Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims too opposed the book. Wasim Rizvi later issued a statement saying he was receiving life threats for writing the book and challenging 26 verses from the Quran.
Rizvi had also welcomed the Supreme Court order on the Ayodhya title suit on November 9, 2019. Before the verdict, Rizvi had been issuing appeals to the Muslim community to hand over the disputed land to Hindus to build a temple of Lord Ram.