Cover Story: Dangerous Malice

Intro: The cases of ‘Love Jihad’ can be found across India, thus making it an all India phenomenon. In Assam, even a woman Congress MLA, Rumi Nath who was already married to her Hindu husband and a mother of one child, fell in the trap of ‘Love Jihad’ by her Facebook Muslim friend.

As a term, ‘Love Jihad’ (LJ) was first heard in the Pathanam-thitta district in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala around September 2009, and later used in a judgement of Kerala High Court in December 2009 where Justice KT Sankaran made the observation that ‘an alleged Muslim plot to forcefully convert young Hindu girls to Islam by having Muslim boys entrap them in love affairs’, asking the state government to consider enacting a law to prohibit such “deceptive” acts of LJ”.
According to reports by special branch of Kerala police, Islamic fundamentalist outfits like National Democratic Front (NDF) and ‘Campus Front’ of Popular Front of India (PFI) have roots in college campuses in various cities across Kerala. “As per available information”, the court observed, “The plan was to ‘trap’ brilliant upper caste Hindu and Christian girls from well-to-do families. The programme was started in 1996 with blessings of some Muslim organisations of Kerala.”
The Court had earlier dismissed the anticipatory bail applications of Shanshah and Sirajuddin, two youth who had eloped with girls belonging to Hindu and Christian religions. According to police, the girls said they were persuaded to convert to Islam and were directed not to disclose the activities of PFI, which was allegedly assisting the two accused. Justice Sankaran said that ‘cases of LJ have serious ramifications for national security.’ It also causes communal tensions amongst the religious groups, endangering peace and harmony. Many communal flare-ups across Kerala and India can be attributed to the growing cases of LJ.

Christian groups, too, also protested against increasing cases of LJ. Father Johny Kochuparambil, Secretary of Kerala Catholic Bishops Council’s Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance, wrote in an article in the church council’s newsletter listing 2,868 Christian girls who fell into the LJ net in the period 2006-09. The Council has also issued LJ guidelines to parents of school and college going girls to prevent it from recurring. According to Global Council of Indian Christians, “Love Jihad in Kerala is part of global Islamisation project.”
According to Janmabhumi newspaper published from Kerala, “The Jihadi Romeos engaged in LJ are given special ranks, rewards, and money for carrying out their operation of trapping more and more unsuspecting girls into this. Jahangir Razak, a former student of Kozhikode Law College, one such Jihadi Romeo, is said to have trapped 42 Hindu girls till date. He is reportedly linked with a sex racket running in Chennai and terrorist organisations. One Shajahan from Pathanamthitta was reported to have trapped 6 young girls from Malayalappuzha Panchayat itself. On June 25, 2012 Oommen Chandy, Cong CM of Kerala, informed the state Legislature that 2667 young women were converted to Islam in the state since 2006 (India Today, September 4, 2012), while the Muslim League, part of the Congress-led UDF government rejected it as ‘myth’.
In December, 2011 the Karnataka government asked state police to investigate the case of 84 Hindu girls ‘missing’ from Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts since June of the same year, suspecting LJ behind it. The Times of India on April 6, 2010 under the headline ‘Love Jihad: girl rescued’ reported that “Pooja, 17, from KR Nagar, Mysore district, was rescued 10 days after she was kidnapped by Azeem Afeez, 22. She told the police that Azeem forcefully converted her to Islam before marrying her. She was also rechristened as ‘Meheq Taj’, the report said.
The cases of LJ can be found across India, thus making it an all India phenomenon. In Assam, even a woman Congress MLA, Rumi Nath who was already married to her Hindu husband and a mother of one child, fell in the trap of LJ by her Facebook Muslim friend from Bangladesh and fled with him to Dhaka, but later Assam Police arrested the duo hiding in Silchar.

Marathi writer Suneela Sovani has written a book on LJ which has been translated into English by Shreerang Godbole and is titled, Love Jihad, Muted Horror, which is a must read for all the non-Muslim girls to understand the ‘modus operandi’ of LJ.
According to Ketan Ranga of ‘Mid-Day’, “Young Muslim boys are trained to make Hindu or Christian girls fall in love with them (in a time span of two weeks) and then convert them to Islam in six months. If the recruits can't make the girl fall in love in two weeks, they are told to move on to the next target.” as the reporter said in his October 30, 2009 “Love Jihad's baby machines” story in the Mumbai daily. Later, those non-Muslim girls are made to bear children from these Muslim boys who after giving birth to children are brainwashed into becoming suicide bombers or involved in acts of Islamic terrorist activities, some of whom are also sent to Middle East (mainly Saudi Arabia and Dubai) to be engaged in ‘sex trade’ there, as per the report. For instance, November 12, 2013 edition of Kannada Prabha reported that Ayesha, who was arrested, presented before the court and then sent off to Bihar, in connection with Patna bombings of Narendra Modi’s rally, was from Mangaluru and was a Hindu girl till she was converted to Islam by using LJ.
Sourabh Jyoti Sharma (The writer is a research scholar at Department of Political Science, DU and can be contacted at sourabhlibra@gmail.com)