The debate around the upcoming film ‘The Kerala Story’ seems to have no end in sight. Now, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has jumped into the controversy labeling the movie as ‘communal polarisation.’ The Kerala CM also dragged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) into the controversy and accused the film of propagating the organisation’s agenda in Kerala.
“The trailer of the Hindi film which appears to have been deliberately made with the aim of communal polarisation and to spread hate propaganda against Kerala was released last day. It is indicated from the trailer that this film is trying to spread the propaganda of Sangh Parivar, which has established itself as the centre of religious extremism in the land of secularism,” he was quoted slamming the film asserted to be based on true events.
The trailer of the Hindi film #TheKeralaStory, which appears to have been deliberately made with the aim of communal polarisation and to spread hate propaganda against Kerala was released last day. It is indicated from the trailer that this film is trying to spread the propaganda… pic.twitter.com/qXz9f8Z2WG
— ANI (@ANI) April 30, 2023
Nimisha Fatima along with three others converted to Islam and went to Afghanistan
The film Kerala Story deals with the story of a group of girls from the state who converted to Islam and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Notably, several women from the southern state, including Nimisha Fathima did find themselves in the clutches of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) after embracing Islam and eloping with their Muslim partners.
Nimisha Fathima also known as Fathima Isa, a Hindu from Kerala whose real name was Nimisha Sampath married an alleged Islamic State operative. Both were reported missing, along with 19 others from Kerala in June 2016 before reaching an ISIS-ruled territory in Afghanistan.
Between 2016 and 2018, she, Merin Jacob P. alias Mariyam, Sonia Sebastian alias Ayesha and Rafala Ijas all from Kerala travelled to the Afghan province of Nangarhar with their husbands who were from Kasargod or Palakkad.
In 2016, Nimisha Fathima married a man called Bexin Vincent from Palakkad an MBA graduate. They both had converted to Islam and changed their names to Fathima and Isa. Merin Jacob P. had married Bexin’s brother, Bestin Vincent alias Yahiya. Sonia Sebastian married Abdul Rashid Abdulla in 2011, a Kasargod native who is named by the NIA as the mastermind behind this whole migration. Rafala had married Ijas Kallukettiya Purayil, a doctor who was also from Kasargod.
In 2019, after their spouses were killed in combined Afghan-US assaults on the IS, all four women turned themselves in. They, along with their children, were lodged in a prison in Kabul.
When the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021, they busted open several prisons in the capital and released the inmates, including the four women, who were reportedly among those who were set free. Now, all of them have expressed the desire to come back to India.
Nimisha Fathima’s mother, K Bindu, of Thiruvananthapuram, has also pleaded with the Indian authorities to allow her daughter and grandchild to return from Afghanistan.
Archbishop Joseph Pamplany’s pastoral letter on love jihad
While the Kerala CM has called this film based on love jihad and forced conversions communal and propaganda, it is interesting to note where the voices against love jihad in Kerala have usually come from.
In his pastoral letter to be read in local churches on Easter this year, Metropolitan Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany of Thalassery (formerly Tellicherry) Archdiocese, Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala, expressed his serious concerns over the matter, which he called love traps (love jihad).
He appealed for their prevention in light of the worrisome increase in incidents of girls being tricked by Muslim men who coerce them into love traps.
In 2022, the archbishop proclaimed that the love traps that target young women linked with the Christian community are real and that he is basing the assertions on credible evidence.
The Thalassery archdiocese specified in a pastoral letter in September of last year that terrorist organisations use these love traps to find and lure naive Christian women. A subject explored in The Kerala Story film. A prayer request was made in the letter on behalf of the helpless parents whose children had been kidnapped by religious extremists.
The twin issues of love jihad and narcotic jihad were covered by Pala Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt in his sermon in the Kottayam area in September 2021. He stated that by claiming to be in love, jihadis entrap and then expose Christian females to exploitation, coerced conversion to another religion (Islam), and terrorist activities.
He also brought up the names of Nimisha Fathima and Sonia Sebastian who ultimately ended up in ISIS-controlled Afghanistan and joined the terrorist outfit.
The Bishop declared, in 2020, that those who argued that love jihad doesn’t exist in Kerala are blind to reality. “Such people, be they politicians or those from social and cultural spaces, media may have their own vested interests. But one thing is clear. We are losing our young women. It is not just about love marriages. It’s a war strategy to destroy their lives,” he pronounced.
Kerala’s Syro-Malabar Church’s statement on love jihad
During the previous three years, approximately 12 Christian women, according to Kerala’s Syro-Malabar Church, underwent conversions to Islam and were transported to Syria, where some of them may have even died.
In 2020, the church released a statement expressing alarm about the rising number of love jihad incidents in the state and contending they were a component of the Islamic State’s extensive plan to threaten the religious and social harmony of Kerala.
The synod (council of bishops) of the church, led by Cardinal George Alencherry, said that the 21 women who went to Syria after being recruited by the IS in 2016 included the 12 Christian women who converted to Islam. They decided to educate the Christian community against love jihad after criticising the Kerala Police for being ineffective in stopping forced conversions.
Father Antony Thalachelloor, a member of the church’s media commission, remarked, “The Islamic State has been luring Christian women as part of their international agenda of hunting down Jewish and Christian women. In the next few months, we will sensitise families and girls through our pious organisations so that they are educated enough not to fall into this trap.”
The rapid spike in love jihad instances, per the Syro-Malabar Church, was reported to the authorities, but they had not conducted a thorough investigation, causing them to approve a resolution on January 15. The resolution highlighted that love jihad is being used as justification for killing Christian women in Kerala.
Vice-Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, George Kurian’s comments on love jihad
In 2019, Vice-Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities George Kurian said that he had addressed a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah requesting an investigation into incidents of love jihad committed by extremist Islamic groups in Kerala.
“The spate of organised religious conversions and using the victims for terror activities by trapping them through love jihad has shown the Christian community is a soft target for Islamic radicals,” he had written in the letter, seeking the intervention of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
“It was based on my letter that the NIA intervened in the Kozhikode case and the accused has been arrested. While the central government is doing enough to try and stop these love jihad cases, the allegation is that the Kerala government needs to pull their socks up,” he continued.
He brought forth another case involving a Christian girl from Delhi who disappeared the previous year. “She was traced to the UAE after I alerted the government about this. The girl was brought to the Indian embassy in UAE where she told her family that she was forced to convert,” he added.
He also used a report from the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council’s Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance, which stated that there were 4,000 instances of love jihad between 2005 and 2012, to show that the menace of love jihad is in fact a bitter fact.
Christian Association and Alliance for Social Action warns about love jihad
Christian Association and Alliance for Social Action (CASA), a Kerala-based Christian body, which claims to be working to expose love jihad posted an awareness video, in 2021, warning against the same.
“The Left (CPM-led Left Democratic Front) and the Right (Congress-led United Democratic Front) are competing to appease jihadists by covertly and overtly justifying the form of terrorism known as love jihad. We should not allow the jihadists to grow in their (LDF’s and UDF’s) shadow. For that, we need to cut down the trees that provide them shelter. Think, act,” the caption with the video reads. Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) is the incumbent government in Kerala.
The Kerala Story
‘The Kerala Story’ is a dramatic portrayal of the sorrowful and gut-wrenching tales of Hindu and Christian women from Kerala who were radicalised and later joined the Islamic State. It recounts the story of Shalini Unnikrishnan, a Hindu woman who is manipulated into converting to Islam, married her Muslim boyfriend, and much to her horror found herself in ISIS-controlled territory.
Watch the trailer below:
