Love-Jihad seems to be have become a nemesis of the southern state of Kerala and every other day new cases are being reported and numbers are only rising. There is no iota of doubt that Kerala has emerged as the hotbed of extremism, courtesy Congress and Left’s minority appeasement politics and that the evil of love-jihad is only prospering under their nose.
Kerala Police on Monday filed a case against a Travel agency owner for sexually exploiting a woman in Muvattupuzha, pretending love after which he tried to convert her to Islamism, which again from the first glance looks like a classic case of “Love-Jihad”.
The case has been filed on the basis of the complaint given by the 24-year-old Christian woman, who is a resident of Kanjar. According to the complaint, the woman had reached the Tour agency to work there. For about one and a half years, the agency owner posed as her lover and prompted her to travel with him to Goa, Mysore and Vagamon. He sexually abused her in resorts in these places after which he attempted to convert her to his religion. Following this incident, the woman left her job. Soon the owner reached the woman’s house and started threatening her. As the woman was afraid to go to Muvattupzha and file the complaint, she filed the complaint in Kanjar police station.
While the State government continues to deny that love jihad indeed exists, the Christian bodies which earlier used to stay mum have started acknowledging the ‘love jihad’ phenomenon in the state.
Kerala Catholics Bishop Council deputy general secretary Varghese Vallikkat has stood up against the phenomenon and said that: “love jihad” should be addressed at a broader level and “secular political parties should at least accept” that it existed in Kerala.
Kerala’s Syro-Malabar church has also raised the alarm in its Syro-Malabar Media Commission report where it stated that Christian girls are targeted and killed in the name of ‘love jihad’ in Kerala.
“It is a matter of concern that ‘love jihad’ is increasing in Kerala causing danger to the secular harmony and societal peace in Kerala,” the report claimed. According to multiple reports, the Synod claimed that there was ‘love jihad’ focussed on Christian girls, stating that over half of the 21 women who joined Islamic State hailed from the Christian community. Christians make up 19% of Kerala’s population they are the most targeted lot for love jihad and when converted, the majority of them are recruited for ISIS as sex slaves and sent abroad.
Kerala’s former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in a question raised in the Kerala Assembly debate had replied that a total of 7713 persons were converted to Islam between 2006 and 2012.
In September last year, a 19-year-old Christian girl in Kerala was allegedly forced to convert to Islam after being blackmailed and facing sexual abuse. The high profile Love Jihad case of Akhila, a 26-years old homoeopathy doctor, who converted to Islam and married a Muslim man Shefin Jahan (the High Court later annulled the marriage ), who was a member of Social Democratic Party, the political wing of PFI (Popular Front of India) an extremist organization notorious for its anti-India activities also made headlines in 2018 as to how deep-rooted the evil of Love Jihad is in Kerala.
“Women are forcefully taken to different countries in the name of love jihad and are used as sex objects. The Kerala government and the chief minister should solve the issue. It is not a problem of some communities but of a country,” said Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, National Commission for Women last month.