‘Love Jihad’

The editorial in the latest issue of RSS mouthpiece Organiser, titled “Take action against love jihad”, says: “What is the lure of Love Jihad? The problem is old. But the terminology is new, crediting its origins to some imaginative police officer in Kerala, who filed his affidavit in the high court following a widespread commotion against an alleged sinister campaign by Kerala Islamists to convert non-Muslim women to Islam through deceptive love and marriage. Such cases have become commonplace in North India and the readers of Organiser are familiar with them, as such cases have been written about in the journal. The problem received wider attention in Kerala because the Christian girls are equal victims of the jihadi Romeos as the Hindus, and the church has taken a serious view. The Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, which is actively creating public opinion against the organised menace of Love Jihad, says that women so converted to Islam are being used by male Islamist terrorists.”

It adds: “...A concerned Kerala High Court ordered the state director general of police and the Union home department last month to file their reports on the matter after a thorough probe. Last week, the Kerala DGP Jacob Punnose filed a reply, which he later termed interim, in which he denied the presence of any organised campaign or outfit named Love Jihad. Experts termed his report politically dictated and funny because of its timing and contradictory observations. The Kerala-ruling Left Front, facing three by-elections on November 7, tried to woo the fanatic Muslims by presenting such a reply in the court. However, it backfired. The reply admitted that Muslim men had been trying to convert women to Islam through love marriages. Such Muslim youth could be getting external financial assistance for expensive clothes, motorbikes and money to attract girls, it said. The DGP’s reply further revealed that these young men could be getting legal assistance for staying out of danger from police and public. Irked by the contradictions in the reply, the high court ordered the DGP to file a fresh report”.

... contd.