Is the Jama Masjid Shahi Imam’s son to marry a Hindu girl?

A story of secularism and acceptance tends to stand out in India, especially when it involves a prominent religious leader.

So when there were reports that Shaban Bukhari, the 20-year old son of Jama Masjid Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bhukari, and the future Iman of the mosque, was to tie the knot with a Hindu girl, it generated a considerable buzz online.

The fact that a man in Bukhari’s position was accepting an inter-religious marriage was commendable and several media organisations said as much.

Shaban Bukhari is reportedly set to marry a Hindu girl from Ghaziabad with whom he has been in a relationship with for a couple of years. Syed Ahmed Bukhari was said to be against the match initially, but agreed to the union when the girl agreed to convert to Islam, according to a report by India Today.

However, this news was contradicted by a report published in Ummid , which quoted Amanullah, the office in-charge of the Jama Masjid Delhi as saying that it was a ‘bundle of lies’.

In fact, he said that Shaban is engaged to marry a Muslim girl. “Shaban Bukhari is engaged with a practicing Muslim girl belonging to a religious family. The girl is a student of Islamic studies and is also memorising the Holy Quran”, he told Ummid.

Shaban Bukhari is a graduate in social work from Amity University and was formally anointed as the Naib Imam of the Jama Masjid last November which makes his the next custodian of the country’s largest mosque, reports Zee News.

The news about the marriage has divided opinion on social media in India. While several people see the inter-religious marriage as a step forward, several others have criticized the fact that she will be converting to Islam.