Divisive Love Jihad Laws Based On Wrong and Biased Perceptions, Not On Statistics
By S.
Arshad, New Age Islam
19 December
2020
The UP
government has recently promulgated an ordinance called Prohibition of Unlawful
Conversion Bill 2020 apparently to stop marriages driven by the motive of 'Love
Jihad' though the term itself is ambiguous and coined by Islamophobic and
anti-Muslim sections of the society.
For a long
time, the Islamophobic section of Indian society is running a campaign against
"Love Jihad" creating the impression among the majority community
that Muslims are deliberately converting Hindu girls into Islam by luring them
to marriage and that this will lead to a demographic change in the country in
the long run though in no interfaith marriages between Muslim men and Hindu
women coercion or use of force or pressure was found on investigation.
India has
always been a multicultural and multi-ethnic society where members of various
religions and ethnicities live in close contact. And interfaith marriages do
take place as a result of this contact. These interfaith marriages take place
between members of all the religions, not only between Muslim men and Hindu
women. But for the last few years the theory of "Love Jihad" has been
circulated and propagated by the media and Islamophobic sections so much that
people started believing that only Muslim men marry Hindu women for converting
them to Islam. For this, every marriage between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman
was highlighted by the media. But the facts speak otherwise.
A survey
jointly conducted on interfaith marriages by the University of Maryland and
National Council of Applied Economic Research in 2013 reveals for the first
time that the percentage of interfaith marriages among Muslims is the lowest
and highest among Christians and Sikhs. The survey was conducted on women of
41, 554 households in 1503 villages and 971 villages across the country. It was
found that only 2.21% women married outside their religion. Interfaith
marriages are the highest among the Christian women at 3.5% followed by Sikh
women at 3.2%. Hindu women marrying outside their religion are only at 1.5%.
The Muslim women marrying outside their religion are only 0.6%.
Again, the
survey reveals state-wise incidence of interfaith marriages. It shows that the
Punjab has the highest incidence of interfaith marriages at 7.8%. Jharkhand
comes next at 5.7 followed by Andhra Pradesh at 4.9%. Interestingly, a
culturally more liberal state like West Bengal has the lowest incidence of
interfaith marriage at only 0.3% though the Muslim population in the state is
30%.
Punjab has
a majority population of Sikhs and therefore interfaith marriages obviously
happen between Sikhs and Hindus probably due to similarities in religious
practices. But the theory of Love Jihad against Sikhs is not propagated. If the
Muslims had been running "Love Jihad campaigns deliberately, the incidence
of interfaith marriages would have been the highest in West Bengal where
Muslims form 30% of the total population. But the fact that here the interfaith
marriages are only 0.6% is a testimony to the fact that the theory of
"Love Jihad" is a figment of imagination of Islamophobic mind and to
tarnish the image of Muslims as religious fanatic.
Ironically,
the states of Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand have not implemented Love
Jihad Laws where the incidence of interfaith marriages is higher nor are Sikhs
and Christians concerned at the highest incidence of interfaith marriage among
their women because these communities believe in the personal freedom of their
members and do not see it as a big threat to their religion.
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