JAMMU, Aug 17:
Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) Chairman and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad has stirred a hornet’s nest by making a bold statement that all the Muslims in India were Hindus earlier.
A video on social media has gone viral in which Ghulam Nabi Azad while addressing a public meeting in Doda recently said that Islam came about 1500 years ago in India, adding that the Muslims in India owe their origin to Hinduism.
He said that all Muslims were previously Hindus and it is later that they converted to Islam. Even in Kashmir, till 600 years back, there were only Kashmiri Hindus, then people converted and became Muslims, he added.
DPAP Chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad said that all Indian Muslims were Hindus first who converted to Islam later. He said that Hinduism is the oldest religion of India. Islam came much later, Hinduism existed before that. The Muslims did not come here from outside, but the people here, the Hindus themselves converted and became Muslims.
Azad while addressing the public meeting said that Islam came about 1500 years ago. Hinduism is even more ancient than that. Even in Kashmir, till 600 years ago only Kashmiris were Hindus, then people converted and became Muslims. He said that many BJP leaders here say that Muslims have come from outside, so I told them that no one has come here from outside.
Azad said Mughal Army brought a handful of Muslims to India from outside while the majority were converted here. Muslims in India are basically Hindus.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, who broke away from Congress and formed his own political party, said that we have not come from outside, we are the product of this soil. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits, Brahmins, Gujjars-Bakkarwals and Kashmiris all are part of this country and this soil.
