The Syro-Malabar Church, the largest Christian denomination in Kerala, has criticised the recent statement of the synod that Christian girls were targeted and killed in the name of “love jihad” in the state.
The media commission of the church, in an official communiqué two days ago, had expressed serious concern over “love jihad” and exhorted believers to be alert.
It had also said such practices were posing a serious threat to the state’s secular fabric and cited many incidents to buttress its claim. It wanted the police to treat it as a law and order problem, not as a religious issue.
But the timing of the statement had raised many eyebrows.
Father Kuriakose Mundadan, a senior priest of the Angamaly-Ernakulam diocese, wrote in the latest issue of the church’s mouthpiece, ‘Sathyadeepam’, and questioned the statement’s timing.
He also said that when the whole country had taken up a united fight against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Population Registry (NPR) such claims will only weaken the larger cause.
“When the country is burning due to politics of religion it is merely a common sense not to make any statements tarnishing a particular religion. In 2010, the Kerala High Court had ordered an inquiry and later the National Investigation Agency also investigated it. They all came to the conclusion that such a phenomenon did not exist here,” he said.
He also said many girls from Hinduism and Islam had also converted to Christianity and nobody has an account on this.
“Has anyone taken the number of men and women converted to Christianity in the name of love?” he asked in the article.
The priest has also questioned the soft stand taken by the church on the citizenship act.
“Since the dangerous CAA would negatively affect the diversity and democracy of India, political parties and religious bodies took a clear stand on this. But was the stand of the Catholic church clear? This question is important as there is no clear stand on the issue from the church in Kerala,” he pointed out.
“Love jihad” is a term popularised by radical Hindu groups to describe what they believe is an organised conspiracy of Muslim men to force or trick Hindu women into conversion and marriage. The purported motives include expanding India’s Muslim population and aiding the Islamic State.
However, its existence continues to remain under question.
But intelligence agencies do admit that in many conversion cases modus operandi was similar and the people or the institutions working behind them were the same. It came up prominently during the Hadiya Jehan case three years ago.
Akhila Ashokan alias Hadiya Jehan case had caught national attention after the Kerala High Court annulled her marriage with Shefin Jehan saying it was a sham. Her father Ashokan had moved the court saying his daughter was indoctrinated and forcibly converted.
The father also claimed that she would be pushed to the Islamic State-controlled areas like the 21 missing persons from the state. But in 2018, the Supreme Court had restored her marriage and allowed her to go back to her husband.
The National Minorities Commission has sought a report from Kerala’s director general of police Loknath Behera. The commission’s vice-chairperson, George Kurian, said the revelations of the church were really serious.
