On June 29, ‘Boycott Alt News’ started trending on Twitter as a controversial fact-checking website, ‘Alt News’ yet again sparked controversy. The propaganda website failed to meet the expectations of its audience and it was then the supporters called for a boycott as well as a refund.
On Bakrid, co-founder of the website, Mohammed Zubair who is out on bail shared an article link from his Twitter account with the caption, “The ‘Bhagwa love trap’ theory claims there’s a concerted effort by Hindu men to woo Muslim women & lead them astray from their faith. What prompted its rise? Who approves of it? How does it propagate? This #AltNews deep-dive story has the answers”
The Tweet has over 400 thousand views and around 500 comments, mostly against the portal and against the founders.
It is pertinent to mention that, Bhagwa Love Trap’ is a term coined by Islamic clerics, scholars and religious preachers to counter ‘Love Jihad’–A pattern crime aimed at conversion. For the past few months, Islamic gatherings have become places to propagate the idea of the Bhagwa Love Trap, in which Hindu men lure Muslim women for conversion and in turn get a huge sum of money as appreciation. A rally to counter BLT was also organised in Nagpur.
Alt News and its founders made it to the fact-checking industry by systematically discarding ‘Love Jihad’, even if presented with facts. Readers may recall the recent murders of Shraddha Walker or Sakahsi in the Shahbad Dairy area by their Muslim boyfriends for not adhering to their demands of conversion to Islam.
The founders have built their whole website around fact-checking and supporting everything which in any manner harms the Hindu society. To balance things out they choose the most trending thing among Muslims, The Bhagwa Love Trap and decided to do a fact-check.
As supposed the whole theory of this BLT turned out to be a myth and the Alt-News report with the headline–‘‘Bhagwa Love Trap’: An elaborate conspiracy theory in response to the ‘Love Jihad’ narrative,” claims the same. The story was published on June 29, the day of Bakrid. The writer of the story of Kalim Ahmed.
The story does a deep dive to the myths around this controversy, it quotes cleric Sajjad Nomani where the cleric asserts that around 8 lakh Muslim women have renounced their faith and ran away with Hindu individuals, labelling these women as murtad (apostates).
The cleric further claims that the RSS has formed a large team aimed at training Hindu youth for three to six months, equipping them with Urdu language skills and other etiquette so that they can lure Muslim women. According to his statements, these Hindu men are incentivized with a sum of Rs 2.5 lakh if they succeed in persuading a Muslim girl to abandon Islam. Additionally, they are offered various benefits such as property and employment.
Notably, the cleric here is referring to a fake letter circulated on the internet against RSS–Organiser has done a detailed fact-check here.
The report also talks about a video of a man surfaced on April 7, 2023 where a man addressing a crowd outside a mosque in Farooq Nagar, Nagpur tells people about Bhagwa Love Trap.
The report also mentions some YouTube channels which have been propagating the false narrative some of them are: Secular Miya Bhai (SMB) with 1.5 million subscribers has a number of videos supporting the conspiracy theory. Others are Haque Media, Raza Graphy and others.
The report smartly concludes at a note of condemning moral policing rather than condemning the false theorists and Islamic clerics.
However, it was anyway a daring move to fact-check a conspiracy that feeds their very own narrative.
Following the report the founders of the website are facing criticism and boycott trends. Some of the users who have supported the website started demanding their money back.
Here are some of the reactions:
A verified Twitter user, Shams Ur Rehman Alavi wrote, “It’s not a propaganda. The term BLT and its usage may be new but it was known long before even LJ was played up by media. The shuddhikaran, conversion and eyeing the women was old plan, thought it may not be on paper. But in the RW circle it existed.”
Another verified user Tarannum Bano wrote, “Listen up, @zoo_bear Your two-faced agenda is exposed. Muslim donations fill your pockets, yet you dismiss the very real threats we face. Right-wing predators exploiting innocent Muslim girls? Not a “theory,” it’s our horrifying reality! Time to expose your hypocrisy and cut off the funding. Muslim community, let’s show them our power by boycotting these deceitful propagandists! #BoycottAltNews #BoycottMuhammadZubair”
Another verified Twitter user Fatima Zohra Khan wrote, “Your job is to speak the truth, not balance it. This majority doesn’t care about facts, seriously; but it’s imp to speak the truth, no matter what is at stake; your article may destroy the very notion of BLT which is spoken about in Hindutva videos as well, this article is biased.”
A user Arsalan wrote, “Love Jihad is a propaganda spread by Godi media and people of BJP ruled state. #bhagwalovetrap It is real that Hindus trap Muslim women and make them victims of their lust, even if they get married under compulsion, they kill them.”
A user Swaleha Shaikh wrote, “hay zubair konsa lolipop mila tumko jo tumne apna iman bech diya tumko kisne bola k tum likho log yakeen karenge itne saare sabut hai video hai jo proof karte hai k blt hai fir bhi tum bol rahe ho aisa kuch nhi hai tumpe bharosha karte hai apni mehnat ki kamai donate kar”
A verified user Mufasahu wrote, “Hey @zoo_bear, your hypocrisy knows no bounds! Taking donations from Muslims while labelling their issues as mere theories? How about you acknowledge the terrifying reality of right-wing groups preying on Muslim girls for their sick desires? Stop appeasing the liberal lobby and start prioritizing truth! The Muslim community, let’s unite and boycott these shameless purveyors of bias! #StopFundingLies @AltNews “
Alt News is an Indian non-profit fact-checking website founded and run by former software engineer Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair. It was launched on 9 February 2017 to combat so-called fake news.
Zubair was arrested and incarcerated by the Delhi Police for a month. Zubair was arrested in connection with a tweet that had a questionable image with the purpose of deliberately insulting the god of a particular religion, the DCP said. The tweet apparently showed an image of a hotel signboard repainted from “Honeymoon Hotel” to “Hanuman Hotel”. The image is a screenshot from the 1983 Hrishikesh Mukherjee Bollywood classic ‘Kissi Se Na Kehna’. the film was cleared by the Censor Board at the time. In the tweet, Zubair had written, “Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel, After 2014: Hanuman Hotel”, in an apparent dig to the BJP government that came into power in 2014.
Zubair is the man responsible for unleashing his army of Islamists and jeopardising the safety of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, following a TV debate on May 27, 2022 on the Gyanvapi Mosque issue. A day later, the video clip of her comments was shared by Mohammed Zubair, on social media. Sharma later alleged that it was a “heavily edited and selected video”, which was denied by Pratik Sinha, the other co-founder of Alt News.
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