Why Islamic Love Jihad is the most dangerous undercurrent India is facing

The number of Love Jihad cases are on the rise and there are calls being made to form a law to prevent it in every state. The need for a law becomes very important as the Islamic radicals are on a rampage to convert Hindu girls to Islam

New Delhi, Dec 17: India has been witnessing several cases in which Muslim men have posed as Hindus and trapped Hindu girls and then forced them to convert to Islam.

It is called Love Jihad.

At a recent interaction, Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the debate on whether a crime is just a simple crime or is Love Jihad will go on. He made the comments while defending his remarks on Shraddha Walkar who was murdered by her live-in partner Aftab Amin Poonawalla. Sarma had said that when a Hindu man kills his girlfriend, we analyse it from the point of criminality. But when a Muslim man kills a Hindu girl, we will analyse it from the point of criminality and also from the point of Love Jihad, Sarma said.

Posing as Hindus:

There is a debate by the liberals that the Hindus tend to call all cases in which a Muslim boy is involved with a Hindu girl as a case of Love Jihad. While this section does not want to see the reality, the question that arises is why do many Muslim men pose as Muslims to lure Hindus. In Bihar there is a case in which a Muslim posed as Samir Khanna to lure a Hindu girl.

In Uttar Pradesh, one Irfan posed as Rahul to get marry to a Hindu woman. In May 2021, there was a report that stated that Shahensha Khan posed as a Brahmin to marry a Hindu girl. His identity got revealed only when the lady reached her in-laws home.

There was another incident in Jharkhand where gym trainer Faisal Ahmad introduced himself to a Hindu client as Atharv Singh. He made her change her religion forcibly.

In another incident, one Taufeeq had posed as Rahul Verma to fraudulently marry a Hindu girl in UP's Kannauj.

Not just the men, in Ayodhya a Muslim woman posed as a Hindu for 12 years. The husband who was married to the woman thinking her to be Pooja later on realised that in reality she is Hasina Bano. Jagbir Kori had met at a railway station. She said that she was helpless following which he took her home and then married her. When she began teaching Islamic studies to their children, that is when he realised the real identity of the woman.

In the most recent case reported from UP, one Nihal Ansari had lured a minor Hindu girl and sexually assaulted her. He threatened to upload her videos on the internet if she refused to satisfy his sexually and convert to Islam.

The real intention is Islamic conversion:

If the intention is just love, then the question to be asked would be why the pressure to convert. In all these cases, it has been found that the end goal for these Muslim men has always been conversion to Islam.

Even the investigation into all these cases have found one thing similar and that the families of these Muslim boys were very much aware of what was going on. Most of these girls realised the real identity of the boy only when they ended up meeting the families of these Muslim men.

The same modus operandi has been found in Kerala where a wing of the Popular Front of India lured Hindu girls and then converted them to Islam. Take the case of the 21 people from Kerala who left for Afghanistan to be part of the Islamic State. Many of the girls who were originally Hindus and Christians had been converted before they joined the terror group.

A dangerous undercurrent:

A woman from Kannur had in 2019 narrated her ordeal that she had to face with one Mushabeer. She said that she had fallen in love with him, but then he began to pressurise her to change her religion. He had threatened to pour acid on her if she failed to convert to Islam.

Officials that OneIndia spoke with say that at least now a section of the media has begun calling out such cases in the open. It is an undercurrent that none were wiling to accept, the official said. It is good to see that the families of the Hindu victims are coming forward and reporting such cases. The agencies had faced this problem in the past where such cases went unreported by the families only because of social stigma.

In Kerala events such as the Kiss of Love are just aimed at promoting Love Jihad. This is aimed at promoting sexual freedom among the Hindu girls. The liberal Left has often called such events as promotion of liberalisation.

Scores of girls and boys in Kerala are taken to a cricket ground, provided free food and entertainment. They are then told to break their family ties. What is ironic is that those who have closely observed such events say that all the girls are Hindus and there is not a single Christian or Muslim.

It was in this context that the Hindu Helpline was started. They have dealt with over 10,000 cases and filed 4,500 or more habeas corpus petitions in the kerala courts. The Hindu Helpline's volunteers while putting their lives at risk has gone about raising this issue. The volunteers are trained to handle cases of Love Jihad and counter such activity. The success rate of bringing converted Hindu girls back to their original faith has started to witness success since 2019 onwards.

Call for a law:

On Friday, the State president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, Chitra Wagh appeared to Maharashtra Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde to bring about a late against Love Jihad. She said that girls in the age group of 14 to 16 years were being forced to convert to Islam.

In Madhya Pradesh while exercising the Freedom of Religion Rules 2022, the government said that anyone wishing to convert to another religion has to inform the district magistrate 60 days in advance in a prescribed format. The magistrates will also have to send a monthly report about the conversions in their respective areas.

In a major milestone, in the month of September a 26 year old carpenter was handed out five years imprisonment in the first conviction under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act 2021. Afzal was not only awarded a 5 year jail term, but was also fined Rs 40,000 for forcibly converting a minor Hindu girl.