Love Jihad, also called Romeo Jihad, is defined as an activity under which young Muslim men and boys target young girls belonging to non-Muslim communities for conversion to Islam by feigning love.
The term “love jihad” rose prominence in the year 2009 is a combination of the English word ‘love’ and the Arabic word ‘jihad’. Love hereby denotes as to accomplish love with the help of jihad and hence is deceptive. ‘Jihad’ literally means making a determined effort, striving or struggling to oppose something or to achieve a noble goal. It is done for the welfare or development of community.
The origin of the word is unknown but attributed to the far-right groups. There is no official evidence supporting these claims.
The concept rose to national attention in India in 2009 with alleged conversions in Kerala and Mangalore. In November 2009, DGP Jacob Punnoose stated there was no organization whose members lured girls by feigning love with the intention of converting. He told the Kerala High Court that 3 out of 18 reports he received expressed some doubts about the tendency. However, in absence of solid proof, the investigations were still continuing. In December 2009, Justice K.T. Sankaran who refused to accept Punnoose’s report concluded from a case diary that there were indications of forceful conversions and stated it was clear from police reports there was a “concerted effort” to convert women with “blessings of some outfits”. The court while hearing the bail plea of two accused in “love jihad” cases stated that there had been 3,000-4,000 such conversions in past four years. he Kerala High Court in December 2009 stayed investigations in the case, granting relief to the two accused though it criticised police investigations. The investigation was closed by Justice M. Sasidharan Nambiar following Punnoose’s statements that no conclusive evidence could be found for the existence of “love jihad”.
Later in 2012, Kerala Police declared it as a “campaign with no substance”. Subsequently, a case was initiated against the website where fake posters of Muslim organizations offering money to Muslim youths for luring and trapping women were found. From 2009 to May 2017, many allegations, kinda proof by the Hindu organization presented on the existence of love jihad. Politicians also somehow used for their political interests.
Is Love Jihad just the Nightmare?
In May 2017, the Kerala High Court annulled a marriage of a converted Hindu woman Akhila alias Hadia to a Muslim man Shafeen Jahan on the grounds that the bride’s parents were not present or gave consent for the marriage, after allegations by her father of conversion and marriage at behest of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. It ordered the DGP of Kerala to investigate cases of “love jihad” and probe incidents of forced conversion emphasizing “the existence of an organizational setup functioning behind the scenes of such cases of ‘love jihad’ and conversions.” The decision was apparently taken based on a large number of radicalized youths from Kerala joining ISIS. It also observed, “Are there any radical organizations involved, are questions that plague an inquisitive mind. But sadly, there are no answers available in this case.” The father had claimed that her daughter had been radicalized and influenced to marry a Muslim man by some organizations so she no longer remained in her parents’ custody.
The woman’s father Ashokan Mani had earlier filed a habeas corpus petition in January 2016 after she disappeared from the campus where she studied. He alleged his daughter was forcefully converted to Islam and his family was reportedly told her that she was being held against her will by two of her classmates Jaseena Aboobacker and her sister Faseena. However after she was found, Akhila claimed that she was following Islam since 2012 and left her home out of her own will. She also stated that she was not under any confinement against her free will. She stated that she had come under the religion’s influence after hearing its teachings from her roommates. She said that she had joined a course run by Tharibathul Islam Sabha, Kottakkal to learn Islam. In her affidavit, she stated she lived with Aboobacker for a brief period and then shifted to Satyasarani’s hostel in Manjeri, an institution allegedly promoting conversion to Islam and reported to be closely connected with Popular Front of India. The institution introduced her to Sainaba in Ernakulam with whom she lived with after her father filed the petition. The court allowed her to stay with Sainaba and later dismissed Ashokan’s petition in June 2016 after she produced records of her admission to Satyasarani. Two months later, he filed another petition and alleged that her daughter was converted at the behest of ISIS and feared she may be taken to join it in Afghanistan, citing cases of two Kerala women joining the group after conversion and marriage to Muslim men. By December, Akhila had married Shafeen and Ashokan’s petition came up for hearing in January 2017. Akhila showed the marriage certificate and marriage registration certificate, but it was annulled. This case is now in Supreme Court.
The incident in Rajsamand, Rajasthan, catch everyone attention where one person burning another person, which video was viral after the incident. That incident was called the action against the love jihad by that person. The person name is Shambhulal Raigar.
There are the views got when we work on the issue of love jihad existence. Some relates the love jihad started since the time of Akbar who marry Herkabai, who is Hindu. Although, Akbar didn’t ask her to convert her religion, so some people disagree that it is the Love Jihad.
We also got the controversial arguments as:
There is huge number was shown by the Hindu and Christian organizations which are around 34000 girls asked to transform their religion in the name of love. My question is does every woman is forced to transform her religion? Is Every woman is a culprit of love jihad? Respectively no, because ratio itself indicate that 30,000 women as a whole cannot be the culprit of “love jihad”. They live in a democratic country where every individual has freedom of religion and choice, such choices should be seen beyond religious boundaries and it should not be an issue. They possess a right to choose their life partner willfully. Love can happen between total strangers across social, cultural and geographical barriers. Many inter-caste marriages have been proven to be successful in many parts of the world, despite social and family pressures and Does Every Hindu marriage is successful? Or, There is no dispute between the inter-religion marriage? Or, does inter-religion marriage give 100% guarantee of success? Or, Hindu girls in today era are the fool to fall for such traps? Kapil Sibal, on 26 May 2017 stated that 68% of all divorced women are Hindus while only 23.3% are Muslims. Hindu marriage is out number Muslim by five times, so it is logical that the share of Hindu divorce is higher than of Muslims.
So, it cannot be said in every inter-caste marriage case or it cannot be said against every Muslim that he is indulging in love jihad or it is a matter of love jihad. Not only Muslim deceit the women through the medium of love even Hindu does so.
Different thoughts with different minds. But the concern is that what if the love-jihad nightmare is real.
Why Muslim groom wants her bride to follow his religion?
If Hindu asked so to his Muslim wife to follow his religion then is not secular then what we called the Muslims who asked their wives to follow their religion. We don’t understand directly the love-jihad but we should understand that person who born in a specific art of living and eventually forced in the name of love to change his art of living then it is completely unacceptable. Kerala is the state which has almost 100% literacy and if some girl marries to Muslim guy then it is hard to believe that she did it under force. If so then every woman of India needs to find their own religion in which they would like to live.
Love Jihad is the term given by some extremist against one religion is not good. But if it is so and it get proved then there must be ammendment in people’s constitution to boycott such religion completely so that world’s balance will be intact.
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