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How mainstream media continues to whitewash forced religious conversion in the name of ‘love’

That hiding one's religious identity to lure a woman into relationship and using coercion to convert people to a different faith is criminal behaviour is lost upon the 'liberals' of our mainstream media

“He loves her..he loves her not..” Remember the silly game played with a rose by the hero and heroines of the 90s Bollywood movies to determine whether he loves her or not. Well, a similar game is being played by the mainstream media and the left faction to assert that forced religious conversion of Hindu women to Islam in name of ‘love’ is figment of ‘right wing’ imagination. This, despite ample evidence which suggests otherwise.

India is probably the only country where perpetrators become victims and victims become radicals. Here anything and everything Hindu is quickly branded as offensive, archaic, unsecular, radical and extreme by the so-called liberals. Be it the religious chant of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, an organization to protect temples or simply a man wearing saffron and sporting a teeka.

So much so, that even forceful and rampant religious conversions plaguing the country has been termed as a Hindu right-wing conspiracy. Cases of Grooming Jihad, more commonly known as ‘love jihad’ fly in from every part of the country. From luring a Hindu woman disguising as a Hindu man, bribing Hindu men of jobs and marriage on conversion to converting deaf and mute kids to push them into terrorism. There’s no dearth of cases to indicate how the foreced religious conversion industry works like a well-oiled and planned machinery. 

But of course, the mainstream media and the left ecosystem have once again have turned a blind eye to Hindu (even Sikhs and Christians) victims. 

And why not? When the perpetrator belongs to a certain favorite ‘minority’, one will send ‘hazaar lanaats’ to everyone except the one behind the gun, or in the case of Love Jihad the one shielding behind a Hindu name. 

Whitewashing of forced religious conversions

Enough and more cases of forceful religious conversions have come to the fore in the past few years. However, the mainstream media covered it as per their whims and fancies. Subsequently, they began to take a keen interest in covering cases of Love Jihad, Grooming Jihad and even forced conversions.

However, it is imperative to note that this was not out of love for the victims, but as a counter to the term ‘Love Jihad’. From calling it a ‘conspiracy’ to calling it a term to label ‘interfaith marriages’, here is how the mainstream media with its obvious disclaimer has been trying to water down the unconstitutional act. 

In a news on Allahabad Court denying bail to a Love Jihad accused, Times Now chose to rant about the alleged conspiracy before ending the article with a few words on the actual news.

Screenshot of a Times Now report

“Radical Hindu organizations have coined the phrase ‘love jihad’ to refer to an alleged campaign by Muslim men to convert Hindu girls under the idea of love. It gained credibility, however, when the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh signed it into law,” read the Times Now report.

In an under investigation case of Love Jihad, The Indian Express in its report said, “They claimed the woman was a minor and called it a case of ‘love jihad’, a term used by right wing outfits to allege marriage for conversion.”

Screenshot of a Indian Express report

Hindustan Times, in a bizarre description, says, “….accused the four of ‘love jihad’, the term some Hindu groups use to describe relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women. The groups use the term to describe what they believe is an organized conspiracy of Muslim men to trick Hindu women into marriage.” 

Screenshot of a Hindustan Times report

How could the charlatans of liberalism stay behind? Rajdeep Sardesai who currently is being mocked on social media for his ‘Rosogulla with Mamata Banerjee’ anecdote, too penned down an opinion piece to discredit the raging issue of forced conversions. 

In a long rant against “a word that gets him really angry”, Sardesai too in the first paragraph itself called Love Jihad a conspiracy of “…a deep hatred for minorities, especially Muslims, and the manner, in particular, in which this Islami-phobia that has seeped into the minds of many is being normalized.”

In another case of letting love for a minority overpower, the left cabal dismissed the claims of even Syro-Malabar Church accusing Muslims of Love Jihad.

Screenshot of ThePrint article

Of course, because using Hindus made no sense here, Fatima Khan- the writer of this ThePrint article claimed, “‘Love jihad’ is a term coined by religious fundamentalist groups, alleging a conspiracy by Muslim men to convert non-Muslim girls in the guise of love.”

How grave is the problem of ‘forced conversion’?

We have covered over two dozen cases of forced religious conversions in different forms. 

Muslim men pose as Hindus to lure minor Hindu/ Dalit girls

Making a Facebook account in the name of a Lakshmi to befriend a Hindu girl, introducing as Lakhsmikant only to reveal to be a Siraj Ali. Multiple such cases of Grooming Jihad have been reported from all across the county, where a Siraj Ali or a Dilshad pose as a Lakshmikant or Dilip to befriend Hindu girls, lure them into marriage and force them to convert.

In most cases, leaving the minor girl pregnant.

Training women to lure Hindu women into Islam

A woman from Lucknow has lodged an FIR in the Indiranagar police station against her husband Ashraf and mother-in-law, accusing them of running a ‘Love Jihad’ racket, among other offences. 

The woman in her complaint said, “Ashraf (the complainant’s husband) married a Hindu girl eventually and renamed her Madiha. She was later shifted to the shrine where she was given training in weaponry.”

She also accused her husband of pressurizing her into befriending non-Muslim women and getting them home.

Mute and deaf children converted to Islam

After one Umar Gautam was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh ATS it was revealed that the accused targeted deaf and mute children under the grab of ‘motivation camps’ to convert them and push them into terrorism.

As per reports, Umar was being funded by ISI to carry out illegal conversions in Uttar Pradesh.

Muslim family lures a woman by promising decent life

One Nikita Saini- a resident of Jalandhar, informed that she was trapped by her husband Arfin Shah and his family into marrying him when they got to know of her previously failed marriage.

The Shah family approached Saini telling her that they look for such women and get them married so they can lead a respectful life in society. Shah’s mother then pressured her into marrying her already married son saying they will take good care of her after marriage.

Upon agreeing to marry she was taken to Uttar Pradesh to perform Nikah where her name was changed to Nafeeza from Nikita.

Man electrocuted on resisting conversions

We reported last week, how one Nitin Pant was forced into accepting Islam on the pretext of job and marriage. On resisting, Pant was threatened at gunpoint and even given electric shocks by the accused. 

Here, let me reiterate that a relationship where the non-Muslim woman willingly converts to Islam to marry a Muslim man or where the non-Muslim woman marries a Muslim man and does not convert her religion, these are not frowned upon or referred to as ‘love jihad’ cases. ‘Love jihad’ or ‘grooming jihad’ cases are specifically where the element of forced religious conversion, whether through blackmail is there. Or if the perpetrator hides his religious identity to lure a woman into the relationship. That these things are criminal behaviour and shows that the intent was to cheat the woman is lost on the ‘liberals’ who continue to stay in denial mode.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media and the left ecosystem, to pacify its ideological urge have shut eyes to the forced conversion menace. Only, their denial of the problem does not result in the disappearance of it. 

Love is love, but crime is crime too.

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