The National Minority Commission (NMC) Vice-Chairman George Kurian has written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah highlighting the use of ‘love jihad’ by Muslim men to trap and convert Christian girls to Islam in Kerala, and then use them for terror activities. 

This comes on the heels of a horrific instance from Kozhikode where a 19-year-old college girl was raped by her tuition mate, Fazal, who clicked her nude pics and blackmailed her to convert to Islam else he would post the photos on social media. The incident happened in July but came to light only after the girl mustered courage and informed her fellow hostel mates. 

The girl’s father has alleged that police didn’t act promptly, and only filed a case after pressure was exerted by members of the church and activists. The FIR was registered on August 8, 2019 at Medical College police station under Sections 376, 384, 506 of the Indian Penal Code. Now the matter has been deemed serious enough to hand it over to National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Media reports state that some 50 cases of ‘love jihad’ have been reported from Kozhikode and nearby areas in Kerala over the last one month.

Love Jihad had earlier come in the news in Kerala when a girl named Akhila fell in ‘love’ with Shafin Jahan and converted to Islam, becoming Hadiya. Akhila’s ex-serviceman father Ashokan said that the girl was brainwashed and forced into marriage by Jahan, a worker of the notorious Islamist terror organization PFI.

Kerala High Court annulled the marriage and then the case reached Supreme Court. NIA carried out a probe and informed the apex court “there is a pattern to convert Hindu girls and get them married to Muslim men” and that a “well-oiled machinery working in Kerala was indoctrinating and radicalising society in the state”.

NIA even told SC that Hadiya is “a victim of indoctrination and psychological kidnapping”, and claims that her marriage was arranged through a matrimony website were totally false, and her handlers who arranged her marriage were only looking for active worker of radical outfit PFI as her groom. NIA had recommended to SC and government to ban PFI as it runs terror camps and has plans to carry out terror attacks against India with the help of Islamic state Al-Hindi.

But SC overruled these NIA findings, and restored Hadiya’s marriage with Shafin Jahan. This case brought to the fore the issue of organized ‘love jihad’ which the seculars love to deny. 

Love Jihad Modus operandi in Kerala

Islamic radicals have been using this technique in Kerala for quite some time now where they lure young non-Muslim girls with the promise of marriage and then brainwash or force them to convert to Islam. Sometimes these girls are pressurized by their Muslim co-students, and are also taken to conversion centres disguised as Islamic seminaries. Once a girl is sufficiently conditioned, she is pushed to fight for the ‘Islamic cause’ and even pushed into terrorism. However, what is more alarming is that now ‘rape’ is being used as a tool to force girls into submission. 

Islamists the world over have been using such techniques to bring women of other faith into the Islamic fold or using them as sex slaves. Grooming gangs in United Kingdom have been known to indulge in child sex abuse. News keeps pouring in from Pakistan about forceful abduction and conversion of Hindu, Sikh and Christian girls. Likewise, ISIS kidnapped and forced Yazidis girls into sex slavery. Be it the west or east, Islamic radicals have begun vigorously targeting non-Muslim women and the sooner we accept this, the easier it would be for us to deal with this menace.

Islamophobia?

Liberals want us to believe that we are simply suffering from ‘Islamophobia’. Well, it doesn’t pay to be an ostrich with our heads buried in the sand. The danger has already reached our doorstep and while we in Bharat are still stuck at the ‘Islamophobia’ narrative UK has been more forthcoming in admitting that the menace exists.

It is easy to brush away sincere concerns expressed by Hindus of love jihad as a ‘myth manufactured by far right Hindu groups’ as Al Jazeera likes to put it but the fact remains that besides Hindu girls, Sikh, Jain and Christians have also been the target of this sinister phenomenon.

In the absence of official statistics, it is difficult to say how many such ‘conversions’ have taken place. But if we go by the concerns expressed by George Kurian, then the non-Muslim community surely has a lot to worry about. The longer we keep our heads buried in the sand, the faster and bigger the menace would grow. 

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