Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore:
In the era of the suicide bomber, what is a 'Love Jihad'? Well that is a term that has surfaced out of Kerala and Karnataka - with allegations that young Muslims are using love to win over young Hindu and Christian women with the aim of converting them to Islam.
The Karnataka government seems to think that this is happening, and that it needs to be stopped.
"Love and affection between two individuals - majors - resulting in marriage and a happy life thereafter is absolutely not a subject for the state or anybody to interfere. But these are case reported to High Court also nowadays with tragic consequences. They are forced after so called love and affection, they are married and converted into Islam or some other religion and then they are sent to training classes. I believe and thereafter they are left in the middle, totally tragic consequences," said Karnataka Home Minister V S Acharya.
The term 'Love Jihad' seems to have originated in coastal Karnataka and Kerala, a belt known for communal tension. Churches were attacked after allegations of forced conversion to Christianity. The young daughter of an MLA from Kasargod said she was pulled of a bus and abused for talking to a Muslim boy. In this context, the expressed concern over conversion through a love jihad is in tune with the overall atmosphere of suspicion.
Any communal issue that erupts in Mangalore usually flows down into northern Kerala. Reports of men persuading girls to fall in love with them, and then making them convert have emerged from Kannur, Kasargod. But the top cop of Kerala says there is no organisation called the 'Love Jihad'.
"The complaints that I have received are not from the girls or their parents. It is mostly from who I call third parties. They have pointed out large number of cases, which they suspect are due to such an operation. We are bound to verify. The intelligence and SPs of all districts are verifying whether it is a natural love affair. There is no organisation that calls itself love jihad," said Jacob Punnoose, Kerala DGP.
What makes it all the more complicated is that there are precious few formal complaints from families said to be involved. There is one case pending in the Karnataka High Court where a father says his daughter has been lured away - she says she simply fell in love.