Even as Hindus are being guilt-tripped for feeling culturally threatened by what liberals think to be a fictitious concept of love jihad, the largest Catholic church of Kerala will now issue advisories to all its bishops to keep an eye on interfaith marriages involving Christian women. Of course, the issued guidelines have ruffled no feathers among Indian media, whose sole purpose is to demonise Hindus. It now becomes clearer than ever that the media preaching at the top of its voice talks about the demerits of anti-love jihad laws, which will supposedly snatch the free will and agency of women, is focused entirely on declaring Hindus guilty for feeling insecure in face of a relentless campaign under which women and young girls are even killed upon their refusal to be proselytised.
While the entire country is focused on some BJP-ruled states supposedly snatching the personal liberty of women, the Syro Malabar church in Kerala is all set to issue guidelines to all bishops, strictly instructing them to ensure that all interfaith marriages involving Christian women and men are solemnized while strictly adhering to ‘Canon Laws’, failing which they might even be declared null and void. Canon law is the system of laws and legal principles made and enforced by the Church’s hierarchical authorities to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics towards the mission of the Church.
Read more: Love Jihad is now a mainstream term. And there needs to be open discussion about it
Earlier in January this year, the Syro Malabar Church’s media commission had released a report which stated that Christian girls were being targeted in the state and that secular harmony was in danger due to the said activities. Now, the church has once again swung into action following a marriage between a Christian girl and a Muslim man, conducted on November 9. The marriage caught the attention of church authorities after a photograph of the bride and groom with the bishop of Satna got published in a newspaper. A section of the faithful then took to slamming church authorities for encouraging interfaith marriages.
Senior priests in Kerala, however, are of the opinion that canon laws were flouted in the solemnization of the said interfaith marriage. While the Christians are taking the challenge of handling the menace of love jihad head-on, some Hindus are still pondering as to whether they should speak out in vociferous opposition of a well-oiled campaign launched to proselytise and forcefully convert Hindu women into Islam by ways of coercing them into marriage.
Read more: Law against Love Jihad is totally constitutional, and it cannot be stopped by opposition leaders
The media, meanwhile, is simply choosing to ignore the steps taken by the Christian authorities in Kerala to insulate women from the menace of love jihad, which again plays a big role in comfortably being able to fight the same. On the other hand, Hindus merely uttering the two-worded term somehow outrages media and liberals, who launch unrelenting attacks on the majority community for merely wanting to protect their daughters from those whose sole purpose is to wage a demographic war on India, for which love jihad is being used as a formidable tool.
