Disclaimer: Spoilers ahead.
When politicians start pandering to vote bank, truth becomes ‘propaganda’. We are told terrorism has no religion. But when terrorists carry out terror act in name of ‘one true god’, only apologists and sympathisers will say it has nothing to do with religion. For years, Hindi movies have played the game where terror activities are either justified or given context. Like there would be some ‘brutality’ a young boy witnesses at that age which made him pick up guns against the State. Here also terrorism is watered down and shown as if it is against the ‘oppressive’ State. Only that in reality it is against a community at large and in India, Hindus.
The Kerala Story, however, pushes the envelop as much as it could. It is unapologetic in showing how gullible people are brainwashed and lured into embracing another faith and then taken on to path of terrorism.
Many argue in a democracy, one must be free to choose which faith one wants to follow. 100%. But if it is choice one makes out of one’s free will. Not when one is lured into ‘converting out of one’s free will’.
Two Hindu girls, one of whom is an atheist, and one Christian girl are roommates in college with a hijabi Muslim girl. Except, the girl also works as an operative to get girls converted to Islam. She is very religious, the other girls aren’t, and hence are fascinated by her sincerity towards her faith. They ask a lot of questions. Which she answers patiently, without getting angry. These could be questions like ‘why do you pray before eating’? Or ‘why do you wear a hijab’? Girl says to thank Allah as only he runs the world and says things like hijab is a protection as girls one need not show off their body to anyone.
She then tries to plant doubts about Hindu gods amongst the girls. Like, ‘if your God was so powerful, why did he carry dead body of his wife and run all over the earth? Why would your god cry like a commoner?’ (this was in reference to Shiv and Sati) Or if your ‘Jesus was so powerful, how can he be crucified like a commoner?’ There is also wrath of Allah being put in their minds. Like how if you do haram or forbidden things, Allah would get angry. And you do good things, Allah would be pleased. Day of judgement will decide whether you go to hell or heaven. “Since you are disbelievers, you will automatically go to hell”, is what is told.
One day, the three girls are out having a good time. As previously planned by the Muslim girl with others who wanted to recruit them, the girls are eve teased. Emotionally disturbed and at a vulnerable time, the Muslim girl tells them that they were harassed because they did not wear hijab. The other hijabi girls in the mall were not harassed as ‘Allah was protecting them’. That’s when the girls start wearing hijab.
They meet other Muslim men, who are ‘cousins’ and ‘friends’ of the Muslim girl and develop a relationship. The local maulvi also encourages the men to get the women to convert soon. “For this, even if you have to make them pregnant, go ahead”, so they go ahead. Then at another emotionally vulnerable time – when the girl is pregnant at just 20, she is asked to ‘convert’ so she could marry a Muslim man.
Eventually, she is told about Sharia and Muslim land where they will be taken care of. How the land is so great as it is ruled by law of Allah. And taking all risk, they are on their way to Syria. To live under the Islamic law. Only to come to realisation they were trapped. That the great life they were promised were a lie and they would end up being sex slaves with zero rights.
To dismiss this as propaganda would be dishonesty. It is a story of Nimisha Fathima, Sonia Sebastian and many, many other girls in India. So when it is reproduced on the big screen, why is it making people uncomfortable? Are we to understand the ISIS is not fighting to establish Islamic rule? That the girls were not lured to go and live under the ‘khalifa’ (caliphate)? That they were not shown a rosy picture of life in Syria? That local clerics had no role to play in their brainwashing?
And it is not just girls, it is men too who, if not born Muslim, are lured to convert to Islam and then packed off to Syria to ‘fight for Islamic Caliphate’. Nimisha and Merrin from Kerala who became ISIS brides after converting to Islam, were married to Bexin Vincent and Bestin Vincent, Christian men who had converted to Islam. If religious conversion and ‘fight as soldiers of Allah’ is the reason for someone’s ‘wilful conversion’, is it even ‘wilful conversion’? Why are ‘liberals’ afraid to call out Islamic radicalisation spreading roots in our homes?
This ‘soft conversion’ tactic – where the person is encouraged to abandon the faith they are born in – to make them feel they are embracing Islam out of their own free will is a classic modus operandi. In January 2022, I visited remote village in Gujarat’s Bharuch where 100 members of tribal community had converted to Islam. While they were lured with promises of ‘better life’, ‘woman to marry’ and ‘money’, they were also brainwashed. They were repeatedly told stories about Hindu gods and goddesses showing them in poor light.
One of the victims, while speaking to me, told me that they were told how Lord Shiva beheaded his own son (Ganesh). ‘What kind of father cannot recognise his own son? How can a God get so angry on his son that he cuts his head? If he was so powerful a god, why did he not attach the head back, why kill an innocent elephant to fix his son?’ These were the questions posed to illiterate Hindu tribals – who are extremely gullible and not having means to answer these questions by reading up on them. After such questions, they were made offer of money, better jobs and converted to Islam.
While being indoctrinated, they were also shown footages of 2002 Gujarat riots and were made to believe that the train was set on fire by Hindus themselves. This line of thought is still propagated widely amongst Islamist circles and peddled when Muslim youth are being radicalised.
These are the lived experiences of these men and women. Why is truth being dismissed as propaganda? Why cry Islamophobia when indoctrination is being done in name of Islam?
When politicians pick vote bank over people, it is the common people like you and I who suffer because while terrorism may have no religion, terrorists do and so do their victims.
The Kerala Story is a story that needs to be told. Now. Before it is too late. And in our politicians’ race to appease a certain section of radicals, we have yet another Kashmir-like crisis on hand.
