Love Jihad

A Jihad For Love!

Is a Muslim man trained to woo an impressionable Hindu woman? Is it for persuading her to a forceful conversion to Islam? Or is it something else? The main question which quests our mind is – What is love jihad? Is it real?

As the ‘renowned’ Hindu fundamentalist group (You exactly know who I am talking about, ‘Tigers’! Run!), campaigned to counter love jihad, they ordered their fellowmen to tie rakhis to 10 lakh Hindus. Apparently, according to this group the recent incidents of Muzzafarnagar riots and the unproven Meerut gang-rape case was an attempt by Muslim men to convert Hindu women into Islam.

Pondering over the history of this concept ‘love jihad’, where did it actually start from is a big question. Did it start from the Southern states? Or from few of the villages of Uttar Pradesh where it is widespread? There is only little evidence to prove this.

Love jihad, also termed as ‘Romeo jihad’ came to limelight in 2009 across the Southern states of Kerala and Karnataka. It existed before, but it made its presence felt after the claims of Kerala Catholic Bishops Council and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. The two different religious panels alleged that upto 4,500 women in Kerala and over 30,000 women in Karnataka had been converted.

A case study had been carried out by the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti to explain how this scandalous act is carried out. It was found that Muslim men were elaborately trained on love jihad and later, were sent out to entangle Hindu women.

An intricate process

This undertaking by Muslim men of ensnaring Hindu women is a matter of concern. They fake their identity by taking up Hindu nick names, wearing red thread around their wrist and tilak on their forehead to attract women. It is our caste system that is killing us more! The others are benefiting from it anyway. The cash rewards are based on the hierarchy of caste. Go up the caste and get more is the rule. Reward for ‘getting’ a Brahmin girl to their community is highest in the list. They strongly believe in the fact that by uprooting the priestly class, they would be successful in destroying Hinduism.

Among the Hindus, this is a sociological fact that when a woman marries outside her caste she is thrown out from her own caste. So, when a Hindu girl decides to marry a Muslim boy, she is by default thrown out of her caste. Instead of pondering over the idea of rejecting the concept of love jihad blame our caste system first. The way out is through! When people from outside will see such hierarchy among your own religion, they will target you first and it is you who will be at loss and they would be sitting somewhere clapping.

The improbabilities and challenges

Love jihad: A system of planned conversion is actually an act of desperation who wishes to change the demography of our nation. Is that true?

The idea of Romeo Jihad is inefficient and costly to execute conversions. You might be wondering how? But which youth today would be willing to sacrifice his time and energy in wooing a member from another community- I know sexually, they would always agree to fling with anyone but when it’s a long term investment like that of a marriage, they would definitely prefer someone from ‘inside’ than ‘outside’. There is a possibility of person marrying one from out caste and one from caste, but this won’t remain hidden and surely there would be a strong reaction from either of the communities which will result into lesser conversions.

In a way, love jihad is self defeating. A person found involved in such activities will be like, a part of that community without any communion.

We frequently come across the examples of ‘love jihad’ and ‘hate politics’ practiced by many political parties. The truth of love jihad is still not known with appropriate evidences. ‘What is love jihad?’ a big question asked by our home minister was shocking. Was he really not aware of this ongoing issue or was he just pretending and purposely ignoring it? This shows that even the government is not ready to accept (or reject) this fact confidently.

How can this be concluded? Is love jihad a myth or a reality? A big question unanswered.

Image Courtesy: Samvad.org

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