Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Maulana Mahmood Madani has voiced strong opposition to the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act 2026, calling key provisions of the new law a threat to constitutional freedoms, privacy, and personal choice.
Madani clarified that the organisation is not opposed to genuine measures aimed at preventing fraudulent, forceful, or coercive conversions. However, he cautioned that a law meant to safeguard religious freedom must not itself become a mechanism to restrict those rights or target specific communities.
He highlighted particular concern over the legislation’s broad definitions of terms like “allurement” and “fraudulent” conversion. Madani argued that vague phrasing could inadvertently criminalise peaceful religious teaching or the spiritual propagation of faith, such as concepts of salvation and eternal rewards, which are constitutionally protected under Article 25.
Furthermore, Madani criticised requirements for mandatory prior declarations, public disclosures, and police enquiries into an individual’s motives. He stated that forcing personal choices into the public domain grants state authorities excessive power to intrude upon private conscience. Drawing parallels to similar anti-conversion statutes enacted in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, he warned that such frameworks create a climate of fear, invite misuse, and result in arbitrary arrests.
Madani urged judicial and democratic institutions to review the legislation’s structural impact on civil liberties rather than focusing solely on its stated objectives.
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