Faking friendship to convert
Religious conversions have been a hot topic in the country for quite a long time now. The issue has surfaced time and again, in the political realm, media and courts.
- Muslims have been accused of feigning love and friendship to lure women from other communities to make them convert to Islam. Hard-line Hindu groups labelled it ‘Love-Jihad’ defining it as an organised attempt by Muslims to convert Hindu women through marriage and then using them for immoral or terror activities.
- There were also allegations of international finance being pumped in in order to accomplish the task.
- The narratives usually projected by the Hindu groups portrays Muslims as ‘radical’ sexual predators stalking and romantically entangling ‘innocent’ Hindu girls for swelling their numbers and to insult the Hindu community.
- Statements such as ‘Hindus are in danger’, ‘By 2050, the Muslim population will surpass Hindu population’ and ‘Hindu are victims of a conspiracy’ are frequently found to be shared on social media platforms and WhatsApp.
- The right-wing groups are feverishly devoted to this narrative. After Narendra Modi stormed to power in 2014 as the Prime Minister, there have been a revival of Hindu pride among the Hindu nationalists. This has resulted in countless episodes of violence against Muslims, laws against interfaith marriage and more in recent years.
- The political vendetta of the Hindu nationalist government against the Muslim community has only intensified for the past few years. So has the attack on Muslims, their homes, workplaces, schools and their places of worship.
- The ‘love jihad’ allegations rapidly spread through the country led by a Hindu nationalist PM Narendra Modi. ‘Love Jihad’ ordinances exist that prohibit ‘unlawful’ religious conversions in the context of marriage and attempts to give the concept, legal and social validity. These draconian laws have been used to arrest Muslim men, accused of forced religious conversions, particularly in rural areas.
- The Sangh parivar has used the ‘love jihad’ campaign tactically to its advantage from time to time.
- The term as a political idea, first gained currency in 2007 in the campaigns of the fringe Hindu Right organisation Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) in the Dakshina Kannada district of coastal Karnataka and parts of northern Kerala.
- Love Jihad is a myth, a conspiracy theory founded by Hindu hard-line groups to vilify Muslims. All such narratives surrounding love Jihad eventually prove to be fabricated just like the narrative which surrounded the 2013 communal violence incident in Muzaffarnagar as the stalking of a Jat Hindu girl by a Muslim boy spurring mass anger and retaliatory violence, was found to be false. Right-wing outfits had claimed that such incidents were part of a larger sinister conspiracy of ‘love jihad’.
- Contrary to the Hindu campaigns, a ‘special investigation’ launched by the Uttar Pradesh police to look into the allurement and forced conversion of Hindu women had turned out to be a damp squib. The official report concluded that the majority of Hindu-Muslim romance cases probed were consensual. The police failed to find any kind of evidence to support the claims that the women were converted forcibly and not out of their own desire to get married.
- The Union Home Ministry admitted in February 2020 that Love Jihad is not recognised by the Centre and not defined by any law.
- The judiciary has repeatedly ruled that Love Jihad is a made-up conspiracy and there is no evidence it exists.
- In Shafin Jahan v. Ashokan KM, the Supreme Court upheld the marriage of Hadiya and Shafin Jahan, which the Kerala High Court had annulled.
- Officially, no information or data backs the claim that Love Jihad exists, nor does the Supreme Courts support the idea that it does.
- Muslims do not feign love, friendship or kindness with the intention of blindly converting non-Muslims to Islam just to swell their numbers.
- Firstly, the almighty has said in the Quran that nobody can be compelled to accept Islam. ‘There is no compulsion in religion’- Surah Al-Bakarah (2:256)
- It means that the teachings of Islam are very clear and definitive that there is no need of compulsion to enter the religion. Anyone who is willing to do so, can do it of his own accord. No one should be threatened or harmed or lured in any way if he does not wish to accept Islam.
- According to a hadith, an individual is rewarded only according to his intentions.
- Umar ibn al-Khattab reported: The Prophet (pbuh) said, “Verily, deeds are only with intentions and every person will have only what they intended. Whoever emigrated to Allah and His Messenger, his emigration is for Allah and His Messenger. Whoever emigrated to get something in the world or to marry a woman, his emigration is for that to which he emigrated.
- Islam, rather than a religion, is a way of life. Prophet (pbuh) set a perfect example with his way of life. The religion insists on practicing moral and ethical behaviour emphasising on good character, compassion and kindness, mercy and honesty to name a few. Prophet was a living epitome of excellent conduct.
- “The best amongst you are those who have the best manners and character” [Bukhari]
- When such great importance is given in Islam for one’s character and no thing as compulsion exits in the religion, no believer will resort to planning, scheming and plotting religious conversions by deceiving, or betraying the people who are dear to them.
- Islam is not a threat to Hinduism as the right-wing outfits claim.
- In June, the Pew Research Center, US, published the results of a large-scale study showing that interfaith marriages are vanishingly rare in India these days. The same study concludes that more Indians convert into Hinduism rather than out of it.
- Even amidst all the ‘Love Jihad’ claims, in Kerala, the official figures for the year 2020, in terms of new converts, the biggest gainer was Hinduism.
- According to the 2011 census, the rate of increase in the population of Hindus was 16.76 percent, while in 2001, this rate was 19.92 percent. This way, a decline of 3.16 percent was seen in the rising population of Hindus in 10 years. Similarly, the population of Muslims increased at the rate of 29.5 percent in 2001 before it fell to 24.6 percent in 2011, accounting for a decline of 4.9 percent in the rising population among Muslims. There was a sharp decline in the rate of population growth among Muslims as compared to Hindus.
- Another fact to consider is that voluntary conversion is not illegal in India. If one wants to convert to another faith, he or she can do so. Practicing one’s religion or conversion to another faith is a matter of individual choice. This is guaranteed as a fundamental right under the Constitution.
- Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion to all persons in India. It provides that all persons in India, subject to public order, morality, health, and other provisions, are equally entitled to freedom of conscience, and have the right to freely profess, practice and propagate religion.
- However, the operative word in ‘freedom of religion’ is ‘freedom’ and not ‘religion’. For the Muslims in India, practicing their religion freely is not without threats. Not only do they have difficulty practicing their faith, but they are hounded and harassed using conspiracy theories like ‘love jihad’ and many other versions of jihad.
- These false claims that it is the duty of Muslims to carry out religious conversions aim to tarnish the whole community and is done with a preconceived notion.
- India’s strength lies in its diversity. The right for the different religions to co-exist is enshrined in the country’s Constitution. But the present political climate prevailing in the country compromises the basic secular values.
https://thewire.in/religion/islam-young-upper-caste-hindu-mans-journey-to-islam
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/debating-religious-conversions/article7028789.ece
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48278441
https://theconversation.com/why-modis-india-has-become-a-dangerous-place-for-muslims-132591
https://thewire.in/communalism/love-jihad-anti-muslim-history-sangh-parivar
https://thewire.in/communalism/up-police-report-adityanath-love-jihad-cases
https://www.theleaflet.in/the-politics-of-love-jihad-and-its-constitutional-validity/