“But Hindu men also commit crimes against Hindu women.”
This is the argument many people put forward when the issue of Love Jihad comes up.
On the face of it, it is true. Of course, Hindu men commit crimes against Hindu women, just like Muslim men commit crimes against Muslim women, Sikh men against Sikh women, Christian men against Christian women and so on. These crimes are of diverse nature, some very serious. (For that matter women also commit crimes against men but let us keep that out of scope for the sake of clarity). As a society, we have acknowledged the seriousness of these crimes and made laws, often very strict, to prevent them. Often these crimes have a prominent social dimension, hence only law is not sufficient to deal with them. We also teach our young the rights and wrongs and try to mould society in the desired manner to supplement the law.
Having acknowledged these crimes exist, let us now see why these crimes are different from what is popularly called “Love Jihad”.
“Love Jihad” or “Grooming Jihad” cases often exhibit the following traits.
1. Hate crime: A crime is considered a hate crime if the victim was targeted based on their identity. For example, muggings happen in the New York subway, but if someone mugs only Jewish people, then it is not just a mugging, it is a hate crime and the criminal is charged with stricter laws. The same applies to Love Jihad cases where Hindu women are specifically targeted. In the Ajmer sex scandal, out of the hundreds of victims, how many were Muslim? It was a hate crime, not a social crime. Clubbing them with regular crimes is deliberate obfuscation to lower the seriousness of these crimes.
2. Genesis in Islamic doctrine: Islam treats Kafir and Muslim women differently in every aspect. For example, Kafir women can be kept as slaves but cannot be married. On the other hand, you cannot enslave a Muslim woman. These attitudes are extremely misogynistic and kafir-phobic which, it would be fair to assume lead to at least some of these crimes. When your ideology dehumanizes an entire group of people, your ideology is encouraging crimes against that group. Hence some criminals feel no shame in hiding their identity or in forcing Hindu women to convert and worse. Add to this the Islamic obsession with converting others to Islam and it becomes a deadly combination where Kafir women are seen as a legitimate target. These are not regular crimes, this is religious.
3. Backed by the wider society: As seen in the recent case in Pune, where a Hindu underage girl was abducted, it is observed that Muslim society often seems to hush it up. The mother of the accused, the Maulvi who converts and marries the underage girl, the family, and even the first wife or wives often support these criminal acts. Ever heard of a whistle-blower saving a Hindu girl? This points to a very unhealthy mindset that is different from regular crimes. This makes saving these girls far far more difficult.
4. Repeating modus operandi: Many patterns repeat in these cases. It may appear simplistic, but faking identity, use of force and intimidation, targeting underage girls, conversion, involvement of more than just one person, violence etc are seen in many cases. Not to deny other complexities, but this obvious presence of recurring patterns itself makes these crimes different from other crimes. The reason we are discussing crime is to prevent it right? Then failing to identify patterns will only lead to failure to prevent such crimes.
5. Organized apologia: A tell-tale clue is the existence of an organized intellectual class that keeps denying the existence of Love Jihad. No such gangs exist to deny regular crimes. On the other hand, popular media keeps glorifying relations between Hindu girls and Muslim men, but not the other way around. How many Feminism and Youth forums on Instagram have covered the 100s of attacks on Hindu men for talking to Muslim women? None. The very existence of such people in media, academia, entertainment etc reveals that the nature of these crimes is indeed different.
6. Disturbing no of underage cases: A truly disgusting but common aspect is the shocking no of underage girls being groomed by older men. If you look at the recent cases from Delhi, Uttarakhand, Pune etc, ALL of them involve underage girls incapable of consent. This phenomenon is the clearest evidence of organised grooming. Islamic doctrine permits relations with underage girls as long as they have hit puberty, but very young girls are also easy to brainwash and turn against their families and society. Anyone calling this organized paedophilia “just interfaith love” is part of this paedophilia grooming gang, nothing less.
These aspects clearly bring out that Hindu-on-Hindu crimes are different than Muslim on Hindu crimes. In Muslim on Hindu crimes, bias may exist. Research in the West has shown that bias-motivated crimes are more likely to involve violence, injury and psychological trauma (Commentary: Why hate crimes are different – CNN.com). This is reason enough to treat Love Jihad as a hate crime in law and in public discourse.
Going back to those who say ‘but Hindu men also commit crimes against Hindu women’, understand these people are not denying the existence of Love Jihad crimes. They are merely saying ‘Love Jihad crimes should not be treated as more serious than normal crimes’. They say this knowing well that bias-motivated crimes do more damage. This makes no sense, and one wonders what is the real motivation of those who provide cover for hate crimes. In every ethical sense, those who make such whataboutism arguments are unwitting enablers of hate crimes against Hindu women.
The least we can do, is not be that person.
