Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 13, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/215364/An-Islamist-campaign.html
'Love Jihad' is not an organization
Hamstrung by the compulsions of the identical
electoral interests of the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front Government and
the Congress-led United Democratic Front Opposition, the Kerala Police, understandably,
is unable to put its fingers on the Islamist programme called 'Love Jihad'
or 'Romeo Jihad' and get a measure of its ominous consequences. The 'Love
Jihad' programme intends to take radical Islamism, of which terrorism is an
integral part, to new areas by encouraging Islamist youth to seduce young
non-Muslim women and then offer to marry them after they embrace Islam. Many
young non-Muslim women in Kerala have been ensnared in this manner; what has
happened to them subsequently is the stuff which horror movies are made of:
Some have been literally sold as sex slaves while others are believed to have
become couriers for dubious organisations. Despite the fact that the fear
of 'Love Jihad', whose real protagonists could well be sitting pretty in Pakistan
or a West Asian country, looms large and non-Muslim families in Kerala as
also in neighbouring States are clearly worried, the police, unable to avoid
action under court orders, are looking for "actionable evidences"
of a tangible organisation. They are unlikely to find it because there is
no such organisation with offices and printed stationery; it is a programme
- really a campaign - to expand the ambit of Islamism and create new channels
to implement Islamism's evil agenda. Therefore, the police, irrespective of
however hard they may try, are unlikely to come face to face with those behind
'Love Jihad' or, for that matter, their foot soldiers. It's like chasing a
chimera.
Yet, the absence of "actionable evidences",
to quote Kerala's top cop, does not mean that 'Love Jihad' is not happening.
There is the example of two teenaged girls, both students, who were forced
to embrace Islam in a deserted house in Muslim-dominated Chelari village in
the Malabar region. The Director-General of Kerala Police admits that three
of the 18 reports he had received so far about 'Love Jihad' in action are
indicative of some formidable plans, but he can't find any evidence that is
admissible in a court of law! He will never find that kind of evidence because
in such cases what is needed is not empirical knowledge or case diary entries
but a willingness to look beyond the obvious. What is also required is political
determination on part of both Government and Opposition to put an end to this
menace, if only to protect Kerala's women from the clutches of men who have
no regard and even lesser respect for their dignity and rights. It would also
help if Muslims, led by community elders, were to join a counter-campaign
against 'Love Jihad'. Meanwhile, the court should tell the police to go back
and do their homework.
