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Indian Political Leader Fired From State Cabinet Over Conversion of Convenience

By Howard M. Friedman

In the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haryana"Haryana/a state in northern India, Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan has been thrown out of the cabinet after he converted from Hinudism to Islam in order to marry a second woman. As reported by the a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/world/14311-sacked-over-conversion-of-convenience"Malaysian Insider /ayesterday, Mohan, a Congress Party leader, had been married many years to his first wife and they had two children. However, now he is in love with Anuradha Bali who was the assistant advocate-general of Haryana before she was also recently fired over the matter. Both Mohan and Bali (who has now adopted the name Fiza) used a ploy common in India to avoid messy divorces under the Hindu Marriage Act-- conversions of convenience to Islam where more than one wife is permitted. However, Islamic scholar and Law Commission member Tahir Mahmood said that kind of conversion by a married Hindu is illegal.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).