Combating ‘Love Jihad’ in India

Love Jihad……..! What is it? Is there really any form of Jihad which is based on Love? Could love ever cause Jihad?

Above are the questions that are often raised by lot many people belonging to different communities with no clear answer. In most of these instances, a very vague answer is suggested…” All those cases of conversions to Islam that are being indulged upon in the name of the ‘contract marriages’ with a view to promote the cause of Islam may be termed as ‘Love Jihad’. In brief, it is an attempt to grab the women from other communities by whatever means to fulfil the shortage of women to be married to. The Muslim community does not have the numbers of women adequate for polygamy that many men adopt. Hence, all such tactics of enticement, fraud and threat are applied by the Muslim boys duly supported by the community. Muslims on the other hand don’t permit their girls to marry other community leaving some exceptions apart. A psychological fear is created by the radical groups in the community by murdering the boys of the other community wo refuse to convert to Islam. All these give an impression that Islam is committing Jihad through its communal approach by corrupting the one of the most sacred system of love and marriages…called “Love Jihad”. There is also another version of using women as tool of Jihad…Jihad Al-Nikah, that refers to women joining the jihad by offering sex to the ones fighting for the cause of Islam…to boost their morale". Today most of the radical Muslims believe that they are fighting for the cause of Islam. Hence, they adopt evil means in enticing the women from other faiths…first by converting them to Islam and then offering them to contractual marriage…a form of sex-slavery. There is another form of Jihad too…Jihad al-da'wah…by converting and bringing more and more number of people from other faiths to Islam. Hence ‘Jihad al-da'wah’ along with ‘Jihad Al-Nika’h could be considered a way to “Love Jihad” that the other communities have to fight today to preserve their existence and honour. Having mentioned the above, it must be realised that these two forms of Jihad are essentially to increase the Muslim population. This is different from the other forms of Jihad. It is an important part in the spread of Islam, for exerting dominance. Muslims in India at present constitute approx 18% of population. Hence, they are in no position to annihilate the majority Indian religion unless they become majority, like in J&K…where they committed genocide on fellow Hindu, in independent India…. where the ungrateful Indian polity kept mum to the plights of Hindu. There are 12 districts in other Indian states too where Muslims have become majority and 2 more where they are at the verge of it, where Hindu are feeling threatened.

Table opposite shows the districts where Muslim & Hindu populations are shown. It is only a matter of time before the genocide of J&K could be repeated. Women in those districts are especially vulnerable to abduction and “Love Jihad”. It is a matter for the social scientists to study why the Hindu minorities feel insecure only in the Muslim dominated area and not under Christian dominance such as those of dozens of districts in Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalay, Nagaland etc. Hindu live among Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi dominated areas too but they never feel threatened for their lives or honour. However, under Muslim dominance, others do feel insecured.

It must be remembered that there is nothing called a ‘permanent’ marriage in Islam. It is a contractual obligation of living together in the name of the so called marriages with or without love. It can be terminated anytime by chanting “Talaq” after which the hell descends upon the discarded women esp if she has come from other communities. Muslim women have accepted it their destiny to be discarded by one and keep hoping to be accepted by someone else…but what about the women who were brought from other religions…who regard marriages as the bond of love for ever? When she married the Muslim boy, she had to convert to Islam. Leaving exceptions, such desolate women can neither go back to her parental family nor to the in-laws. She thereafter becomes increasingly vulnerable to exploitation by the others. This is where both the desolate women and her parents feel let down by Islam. In most cases, it is her parents who comes to her rescue though with the dented confidence in her as she had earlier defied them while marrying that Jihadi boy. Another reason for the discomfort of the Hindu parents are that nearly 1/3rd of Muslim boys marry Hindu girls through enticement & allurement…many as second or third wife… of which she was unaware of. She realises this only after it is too late. Thereafter, she is at the mercy of the boy who enticed her but seldom goes public with her views for the fear of being abandoned by Talaq.

But what is Jihad? This is the draconian part of Islam with which the world is embroiled with violence against the followers of other religions/faith. Jihad is supposed to be “a call given by Islam to fight the aggression by ‘non-believers or enemies of Islam who do not follow the principles of Islam as enshrined in Quran, hadith or Ijma’. Jihad could be against the inner thoughts of a Muslim himself which is at variance with Islamic teaching. Jihad is considered the 6th of the 7 tenets of Islam. In brief, it is a fight against (a) worldly passions & pleasures (b) devils (c) those committing sins (d) the Hippocrates and (e) non-believers of Islam or the people of other religion/faith. If going by the above, most if not all Muslim rulers should have been killed under Jihad for having committed the crimes of enjoying the worldly passions & pleasures, for behaving a devil against the population they enslaved, for committing sins of inhumanity against the weak and being Hippocrates of preaching something else than practices…. all considered sins under Islam. Mohammed himself committed the above crimes against those fellow citizens with whom he grew up but later enslaved them in own land and compelled to convert to his own founded faith…Islam.

What about the non-believers of Islam? If they are not committing aggression on Muslims, why should Muslims harm them? But this is the hypocrisy of Islam. From time to time, many perverted Muslim kings have given a call to impose Islam on the followers of other religions/ faiths by force. This is how Islam was imposed on the most others. This is how all other faiths prevalent in the Arab-world and adjoining areas were made to vanish. The Parsis in Iran fled to India to ward-off extinction. However, the three Indian religions of those period…Hindu, Jains and Boudhs suffered a lot in the hands of cruel Muslims but managed to survive with several gallant fights, at all levels…of physical, intellectual and spiritual…that made those demons to realise that they cannot wipe out those religions of humanity and might as well live along with them at relative peace…at ideological conflict though…inflicting several crimes…with their own version of Jihad… However, the morale of the followers of the Indian religions dipped miserably low. They merely survived the onslaught when Sikhism took birth. They had made a Sikh protector wing of armed Nihangs…but they too suffered in the hands of cruel Muslim rulers…through ‘chhota Ghonghura, bada Ghonghura…and so on’. Jihad engulfed them too. There are many instances of Sikh women too being taken away by the Muslims.

Now let us consider what are the implications of ‘Love Jihad’. Muslims in the modern world have failed to reconcile to the fact that if they have to take from others, they will have to give too. In the matters of love and marriages, Muslims have remained uncompromising. They mandate the person of other faiths/religion to convert to Islam and prohibit any Muslim to convert to other religion. In Islamic India, women of other religions were forced to marry influential Muslims. In British India, some form of law-of-the-land prevented such happenings. After partition, Muslim hegemony had gone and the people were largely confined to intra-religious marriages out of their own will with occasional exceptions that usually did not raise much eyebrows (although there were exceptions too).

The first major discontent among the Hindu came in year 2001-02 when their population dipped by the largest decadal fall (of ~1%) at the cost of the rise in Muslim population. However, these figures as tabulated as per Census of India, may not be correct. Unofficial estimates hint that Muslims form 18-20% of population in India. They don’t provide the correct data to the census officials. Further, the illegal migrant Muslims are unaccounted. Corrupt officials and Muslim-appeasing political parties manage / manipulate to provide them with fake IDs away from the eyes of the officials.This is a newer concept of Jihad…of increasing Muslim population… towards creating a greater Muslim Caliphate as shown opposite (under black shade) by numerical superiority…a voice given by ISIS leader Al-Baghdadi in 2014. These are all radical imaginations of Islam which can never become reality. Nonetheless a form of Jihad to increase the Muslim population can be seen among them. Hence, there are increasing unease among Hindu for the fears of another Muslim dominance, another partition owing to the growing Muslim population. The reasons for increase in Muslim % are 3-folds…

(i) Muslims having more children,

(ii) Mass conversions of the marginalised sections of Hindu with allurement and

(iii) Converting the girls/boys of other community to Islam through enticement, fraud or threats.

The conversions to Islam were unchecked in India in the 70s, 80s & 90s through allurement by the funds coming from Islamic nations. The rise in Muslim population was greatest in Kerala and West Bengal where the Communist cadre were hands in glove with the Muslims. The term of ‘Love Jihad’ too came first from Kerala where large numbers of non-Muslims girls were married to Muslim. The police inquiry in early 2000s under communist/Muslim administration was undoubtedly partisan hence, NIA was brought to investigate. There was a unique recurrent trends observed… The girl was abducted or lured… Her modesty outraged after which seldom a Hindu girl is accepted back in the community. Fearing reprisals, she is coerced to accept Islam and give testimony if investigated later. This was a trend that led no overt proof of abduction or rape by her abductor whom she was made to marry by the Mullahs…leaving no clear-cut evidence of an organised crime such as ‘love jihad’. Hence, it is not without the substance that the trend of ‘love jihad’ continues…the same trend…abduct, outrage modesty/rape…convert and get married to their rapists. This is what has been happening in the recent years and decades in Kerala, West Bengal, UP, Haryana and so on. Since such acts straight way put the Muslim community under question, no Muslim-appeasing govt lets it get out of hands and the women succumb to the social pressure of remaining mum.

In the recent years a different ploy of ‘Love Jihad’ have come to notice in which the Muslim boys entice the Hindu girl as a Hindu. It becomes too late by the time the girls know their real religion and identity. Yet in another type of ploys, the Muslims marry the Hindu girls under Hindu/Jain customs by temporarily converting to Hinduism and later join back Islam (Anjali Jain case in Rajasthan) saying Islam does not permit conversion to other religions. The recent case Nikita Tomar of Ballabhgarh (Haryana) has taken place in October 2020 in full public view of the CCTV camera and shocked the nation. It is unambiguous that the Muslim boy is trying to abduct the girl who tried all means to escape from him and then the devil Muslim shot her point blank and fled away in the car. Many such cases have happened in UP also. These type of 10s of thousands of instances have been going on in Kerala, West Bengal and Karnataka for long time. Other states too have recorded such cases. Hence, some of the CMs have taken a resolve to bring-in a new law to prevent ‘love jihad’. It is understood that other BJP ruled states too are concerned about the modesty of their women and intend to bring such law. Muslim appeasing states may not raise voice against such inhuman acts by the Muslims enticing the Hindu women.

In 2009, the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) and Vigilance Council of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC) as well as Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) raised an alert of several cases of Love Jihad in Kerala. Such cases have been happening every year. This year too, the Syro Malabar Church continued its stand on ‘love jihad’ with several Christian women being targeted. The world Sikh Council in London too received reports in 2014 that girls from British Sikh families were becoming victims of Love Jihad. Myanmar Buddhists women have been targeted long with ‘love jihad’ that they finally had to take arms against them.

Coming back to the ‘law against Love-Jihad’, what can be done? Most Hindu will seek such law. Let us examine: -

1. Could inter-religious marriages be banned in toto? No, it will be against the Constitution.
2. Could all such cases of abduction-(rape-) brainwash - conversion-marriage to rapist be banned? Possibly No, because that girl is often threatened for life of self or family by the jihadists. Once raped and married, very few will accept her back in the community. So she considers it as her destiny.
3. Could the conversion of a woman be made obligatory to exchange from other community so as not to alter religious demography? Possibly Yes, with some constitutional amendment of “no change in religious demography”.
4. An ‘abide-by’ clause in all inter-religious marriage may be provisioned…of no divorce in the first place. If there are exceptionally strong reasons for divorce in the eyes of law, the lady should inherit 50-75% of husbands’ assets and a life-long maintenance to support herself (and children, if any). This is a must to discourage abandoning the women of other faith who may not have a place to go.

Eight states in India incl Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand already has an anti-conversion law in some form or the other. But the fact that some of these states are facing the heat of the conversion problems, point out that those laws are not effective. Recently Allahabad High Court has ruled that conversion just for the sake of marriage is unacceptable. This was one of the tricks of the Muslim community’s ‘Love Jihad’ to encourage their men to marry the Hindu girl by temporary conversion to Hinduism and later revert back to Islam thereafter. Based on this ruling, an SIT was constituted in Kanpur to investigate 14 such cases of the so-called “Love Jihad”. This SIT finding in Nov 20 was extremely worrying to find that in 11 of the 14 cases, the Muslim boys had fraudulently tried to marry the girls by converting them to Islam.This is only in Kanpur. What about 100s of such cities all over India where such acts are rampant?

Recently, MP & UP govts have proposed a “Freedom of Religion” or similar laws in which religious conversions through “enticement, fraudulently changing identity” could invite varying periods of Rigorous Imprisonment. One such ordinance has already been brought-up in UP. There are many problems in the proposed act of law: -

• There is no clear-cut definition of ‘Love Jihad” that needs to be formulated. No act of law will be effective against an ill-defined offence. The definition must incorporate all aspects as elaborated.
• There is already an ‘anti-conversion’ law in many states unable to prevent illegal conversions in marriages.
• After a woman is already abducted, raped, converted and married to her rapist, there will be very few women willing to complain against the rapists. They are mostly the radicals and jihadists who may pose life-threat to the women and/or her blood relatives. Some are even brainwashed during their ordeals. Fearing consequences, such women often back out from ‘love jihad’ in a court of law…just like Hadia case.
• There are loopholes in the Pseudo-secular provisions in the constitution that is mum on this issue.
• Quran & Hadith supports the Muslim personal law in preventing conversion of Muslims to other faiths while allowing others to convert to Islam esp in marriages. Muslims are immensely intolerant to marrying their wards to other religions. It is an unwritten law, a bigotry. They have killed numerous individuals disobeying this unwritten law. This has to be a 2-way road, to say the least. Some hardliners even suggest 1 to 1 exchange between the two communities. If a Hindu girl is converted to Islam, a Muslim girl should be offered to Hindu. This is only possible through the involvement of the two community seniors.
• Since Hindu women after conversion and inter-religious marriages are seldom accepted by the Hindu society, they especially become vulnerable for exploitation after Talaq. All interfaith marriages must have some clauses that divorces are made only under exceptional circumstances. To prevent the divorced women from exploitation, the boy must provide undertaking in a court of law to compensate the woman suitably.

All the above deliberations point out certain concerns in the issue of “Love Jihad” with some unclear and controversial provisions and perceptions. For this reason, some of the provisions in the State Govt Ordinance on ‘Love Jihad’ or ‘prevention of unlawful religious conversions’ does have some flaws that may need correction.

Proposed approach to the controversial problems of “Love Jihad”:-

1. Concept of Love-Jihad is controversial, must be defined carefully.
2. Muslims take women of other religions but don’t allow Muslims to convert to others, is a form of jihad. It has to be a 2-way road. It has to be addressed thrugh a law or by mutual coordination of the diff communities.
3. All interfaith marriages must be scrutinised by the courts and all Inter-faith marriages must be made life-long ‘abide-by’ unless for reasons unavoidable in the eyes of law. In such cases of divorce, the women must get a substantial share of the husband’s assets & properties.
4. Any occurrence of conversion by alluremet, inticement or threat (overt or covert) must be made punishable through a law which is equally applicabe to all religions & faiths. A common Civil Code is mandatory.
5. The constitution may be amended to alleviate the apprehensins among the followers of Indian Religions (IR) of “Not permitting change in religious demography of India and its States”. India being the only country for IR groups, it may be made a fundamental right esp since the nation was partitioned for Muslims.
6. An inter- religious elders’ group may be formed at different levels to oversee 1 to 1 ratio of conversion to and from Islam so as to preserve the religious demography of India. The give and take has to be there.
7. A Uniform civil Codemust be enacted in the nation and 2-child normbe made law of land, irrespective of religion. This will help in preventing change in the religious demography of the country and alleviate concerns of the majority Hindu regarding the very concept of ‘Love Jihad’.