The conversion of Sikh daughters to Islam in the name of love in Kashmir has been a major issue for Kashmiri Sikhs.
52-year-old Sikh preacher Bibi Gurdeep Kaur was leading an important meeting in the basement of a gurdwara in Srinagar. Gurdeep Kaur, who gives weekly religious lectures to congregations and teaches Punjabi, recently gave a lecture on how to stop her Sikh daughters from converting to Islam. She said that we need to educate our daughters about religion. We should teach them Gurbani, what Guru Sahib has taught in it. If your daughter does not learn and study Sikhism and history, then you have failed as a mother. About three dozen Sikh women sitting there agreed. Their conversation was inspired by the recent conversion of a Kashmiri Sikh woman to Islam, the video of which is going viral on social media.
In the video, the woman, Bhavneet Kaur, can be seen and heard claiming that she has converted to Islam after searching for Islam for over seven years. Now her new name is Qurat ul Fatima. She says that Sikhism came about 300 years ago, but what was the religion before that? I was curious to know and that is how I came closer to Islam. I am recording this video so that my parents and members of my Sikh community know that I have returned to my original religion.
A new rift has emerged in Kashmir due to the inclination of Sikh women towards Muslims. There is a small community of about 40,000 Sikhs in Kashmir, which constitutes about 1 percent of the population and is living under the threat of jihadi violence. They are trying to maintain their cultural and religious identity while facing the challenges posed to Sikhism. The Shiromani Committee is also not taking stock of them. Neither the Akali Dal nor the Shiromani Committee delegation has gone there to take stock of them yet.
Based on the video about religious conversion, it starts with a person speaking in Kashmiri and appeals to people to share this video as much as possible. This video has been viewed 8.5 lakh times. Most of the comments congratulated the woman who converted from Sikh to Muslim, while the Sikh community has expressed surprise that this is an act of humiliating the Sikh Panth.
Under that video, Jagbir Singh has commented that you may be happy, but your parents are sad. This is neither good for the Sikh community nor for the Muslim community. And mothers are the first to blame for not being able to connect their daughters with Sikhism. People from the Sikh community are blaming mothers for not instilling Sikh values in their daughters. While some interfaith couples have spoken of not regretting their decisions and living happily with their choice, the big question in this context is how Sikhs live in such a violent and communal environment.
