Love Jihad is not ‘love’ but prominently religious and under the pretext of love, there are deceitful conversion: Kerala High Court
It is stated that there is a movement or project which is called “Romeo Jihad” or “Love Jihad” conceived by a section of the Muslims. The idea appears to be to convert girls belonging to other religions to Islam. It is stated that Muslim boys are directed to pretend love to girls of other religions and get them converted to Islam. A lot of money is available for executing the project. There are men whose help is available at any time. Organisations are also there to implement the project. Some organizations have devised plans for compulsive or deceitful religious conversions by winning over girls.
It is understood that a very large number of inter-religious marriages are taking place every year and that many conversions are taking place on that basis. Although the exact details or the exact numbers of such marriages are not readily available with any police agency. At the same time, there are reasons to suspect that there are concerted attempts to persuade girls to change their religion after they fell in love with Muslim boys. There is also information received by the police department that some groups are actively working among youngsters encouraging conversions by such techniques; that young men who are engaged in such pursuits are said to be receiving funds from abroad directly or indirectly for purchasing clothes and vehicles and for availing legal help etc.; that they have links with other places in India also.
It is believed that Muslim Organisation like Muslim Youth Forum and Muslim Women’s organization like Thasreen Millat, Shaheen Force, Popular Front of India, National Democratic Front, and its students’ organizations Campus Front are the organizations behind the so called Love Jihad movement.
The freedom guaranteed by the Constitution is to profess, practice, and propagate religion. The act of practice is concerned primarily with religious worship, ritual and observations. Propagation is concerned with right to communicate beliefs to another person or to expand the tenets of one’s religion but does not include a right to forcible or compulsive conversion. Any use of force or allurement for the propagation of religion is illegal and may cause law and order problems. ‘Public Order’ and ‘Police’ are the State subjects as per the Constitution of India and hence prevention, detection, registration, investigation and prosecution of crimes are primarily the concerns of the State Governments/ UT Administrations.
The State Governments can enact legislation providing for the prohibition of conversions from one religion to another by use of force or by allurement/ inducement or fraudulent means. The State Governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, by exercising their powers in this behalf, have enacted legislation to prohibit any person to convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to any other religious faith by the use of force or by inducement or by any fraudulent means, which are the measures to maintain public order.
Indian nation consists of citizens belonging to different religions, communities, castes and creeds. All are citizens of India. All have equal rights. All the citizens have the fundamental rights enshrined in our Constitution. A citizen of India is entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion as enshrined in Article 25 of the Constitution of India. Our laws do not prohibit inter-religious or inter-caste marriages. True, religions have their own sanctions, faith and culture. When pitted against the Constitution and the laws, the religious sanctions cannot override the former. Our Constitution and the laws take care of religious faith, traditions and custom.
Inter-religious marriages, arising out of love affairs or otherwise, are to be recognized and promoted. To solemnize such marriages, there need not necessarily be any conversion of one party to the marriage from one religion to another. If a boy or girl believes that a marital union is not possible without the other party to love converting to his or her religion, it is his or her faith. But in such cases, it is not loved that is prominent, but religion. Forcible, compulsive, or deceitful conversion takes place in such cases. Nobody would say that it is a healthy trend. Love is driven. It has no barriers of religion, caste, or creed. But under the pretext of love, there cannot be any forcible, compulsive, or deceitful conversion. It destroys the divine and sublime love.
The rights of the parents to bring up their children in the way all of them like, also cannot be lost sight of. Simply because a boy or girl has become major, that does not mean that the parents have no say in the matter of their future and their career. The parents are entitled to protect their children. The parents are entitled to advise their children and mould their careers. The right conferred under Article 25 of the Constitution does not enable a stranger to deny the rights of the parents of the girls. Article 25 is aimed at protecting individual freedom, it Is not aimed at destroying the family setup and culture, in our country, there are laws for protecting the rights of parents. There are also laws compelling the parents to provide for even major children, in certain circumstances. The laws in our country are aimed at protecting the rights of our citizens and protecting the culture and traditions of our citizens.
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