Islamophobia Watch: Jesuit Priest of Kerala Warns Bishops against Falling Into the Trap of Love Jihad and Narcotics Jihad
The
Narrative of Love and Narcotics Jihad Spread By the Church for Distracting
Public Attention from Its Corruption and Venality
Main
Points:
1. Bishop
Kallaranghat said that Muslims were waging Love and Narcotics Jihad against
Christian women.
2. Another
priest Roy Kannanchira said that nine Christian girls were lured away by
Muslims.
3. Jesuit
Priest Fr Cedric Prakash warned the priests against falling into the trap of
Islamophobia.
4. He said that
the Bishop needs to have the honesty to address the financial and sexual scandals within the
Church
-----
By
New Age Islam Correspondent
6 October
2021
In Kerala
where Christian population accounts for 18% of the population and so the Church
wields considerable political influence in the state, a Catholic bishop of
Pala, Joseph Kallaranghat alleged that Muslims of the state were deliberately
luring Christian girls to convert them into Islam. He had said that Muslims of
Kerala were waging a Love Jihad and Narcotics Jihad to lure Christian girls of
the state into marrying them in order to convert them into Islam. Another
senior priest Roy Kannanchira also alleged that nine Christian girls had been
lured away by Ezhava community boys. After a harsh rebuff from Ezhava community
leader Vellapally Natesan, Kannanchira apologises and withdrew his statement.
However,
this Islamophobic campaign was criticized by Jesuit Priest of Kerala, Cedric
Prakash has penned an open letter to the bishops community warning them against falling into
the ‘meticulously planned’ trap of the right wing Hindu organizations that
continuously circulate the idea of Love Jihad and Narcotics Jihad to cause fear
and hatred of Muslims among the majority community. Fr Cedric Prakash has said
that such narratives are a highly manipulative way of more important issues to
the back burner.
Fr Prakash
said that such narratives of Love Jihad is— a Right-wing concoction served to
the gullible Hindus to spread false propaganda against Muslims.
This should
be seen in the backdrop of orchestrated protests by the lay Christians against
the corruption and venality in the church is gaining momentum in the Christian
community of Kerala. The common Christians have challenged the authority of the
church. Some recent events of moral corruption in the church has caused great
embarrassment to the church.
The Sister
Abhaya murder case is a flagrant example of the moral corruption in the church.
A priest and a nun have been proven guilty and have been sentenced to life.
After the murder, the dead bodies of 20 nuns had been retrieved from wells in
various convents. Moreover, Major Archbishop George Alencherry will soon
undergo trial for alleged fraudulent land deals. Another Bishop Franco Mulakkal
is accused of raping a nun and is facing trial.
It seems
that these cases of moral and financial corruption have compelled the bishops
and priests to resort to Islamophobic campaign to divert the attention of the
common Christians. But Fr Cedric Prakash warned them against adopting such
counterproductive acts. Kerala is an example of multicultural peaceful society
where Hindus, Muslims and Christians live peacefully and respect each other.
Fr Prakash
has rightly reminded the bishops and the priest spreading the narrative of Love
and Narcotic Jihad of the constitutional guarantees for every adult citizens to
choose one’s religion and life partner. He said that if someone forces anybody
to convert his or her religion or kidnaps a girl to marry her forcefully, the
law provides for stringent punishment against him.
Fr Prakash
added in his letter, “The Bishop needs to have the honesty to address the
scandals: financial and sexual within the Church.”
The
statements of Bishop Joseph Kallranghat and Roy Kannanchira shows that the
narrative of Love Jihad and Narcotics Jihad circulated by the right wing Hindu
organizations have influenced the Catholic priests and they have fallen in
their trap. But Jesuit Priest Fr Cedric Prakash has rightly warned them against
falling into the trap and damaging the secular and multicultural fabric of
Kerala.
-----
Following
are the original articles written by Valson Thampu and Telegraph
Special Correspondent originally printed in the Telegraph India
-----
Politics
by Other Means
By
Valson Thampu
04.10.21
Representational image.
-----
According
to Joseph Kallarangatt, the Catholic bishop of Pala, Muslims in Kerala are
pursuing a sinister plot against his flock. They make matrimonial forays and
narcotic infiltrations into the fold and lure gullible youths to their doom. A
senior priest, Roy Kannanchira, also alleged that nine Catholic girls were
lured away by Ezhava ‘enemies’, especially trained for the purpose. This
invited a searing rebuff from Vellappally Natesan of the Ezhava community.
Unnerved, the priest withdrew his allegation and apologized. Another priest
spewed communal poison against the Muslims in the chapel of a convent in
Kuravilangad. Four nuns boycotted the proceedings in protest.
Kannanchira’s
apology can mean only this: the alleged ‘love jihad’ against Catholic youth is
a spectre of Kallarangatt’s subjectivity. It undermines the credibility of the
bishop’s charges. Why does the bishop stand firm while the priest becomes
apologetic in an identical situation? There is only one explanation for this.
It is counterproductive to provoke the Ezhavas, whereas it is profitable to
bait the sorely besieged Muslims.
This view
is reinforced by the striking similarity between the strategy of the Catholic
Church in Kerala and that of the sangh parivar nationally. Both need the Muslim
community as a hate object. The bishop’s ‘narcotics jihad’ allegation is
shrewdly timed. The capture of Afghanistan by the Taliban, the most-feared
hybrid of terrorism and narcotics, provides the ideal moment to raise the
spectre of a ‘narcotics jihad’ unleashed by ‘sleeping Muslim terror cells’ in
Kerala. In this, the operative mindset is that of the sangh parivar. Whether
the Pala bishop plagiarized it opportunely or was tutored in it by an
interested party remains to be settled.
It is easy
to see why the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is forced to resort to the
‘religion-is-in-danger’ bogey. It has suffered a series of moral earthquakes.
In the Sister Abhaya murder case, a priest and a nun have been proved guilty
and condemned to life-long imprisonment. Since that murder, dead bodies of
around 20 nuns have been recovered from various convent wells. Major Archbishop
George Alencherry is due to undergo trial for alleged fraudulent land deals.
Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun, is facing trial. Orchestrated
resistance to corruption and venality in the church is gathering momentum. Lay
defiance of the church’s authority, unimaginable in the Catholic Church till
recently, is becoming the new normal.
The
resultant insecurity is aggravated by political and economic factors.
Politically, the power-base of the Catholic Church — the Catholics comprise 60
per cent of Christians in Kerala — has been weakened by two factors. First, the
shift in the calculus of electoral politics. The Kerala Congress (M), the main
plank of the church’s captive vote bank, has split and its backbone has shifted
from the Congress-led alliance. The emergence of the Marxists as the
domineering political force in Kerala — the party that the Catholic Church
dislodged from power in 1958-59 — is not exactly good news for the bishops’
lobby. This also means that Christians no longer vote as directed by the church
hierarchy.
On the
economic and educational front, the pre-eminence that the church enjoyed in the
northern part of Kerala has come under serious challenge from Muslims, who have
made significant gains in the last three decades. This is reinforced further by
their demographic gains. Muslims are the only community in Kerala to have
gained steadily on the population front. They formed 17.5 per cent of Kerala’s
population in 1901. The figure rose to 26.56 per cent by 2011. During the same
period, Christians grew from 16.3 per cent to 18.3 per cent. It is a widely
known secret that the church leaders are keenly mindful of the economic
underbelly of demographic shifts. This has been, though unacknowledged, a major
determinant in conversion drives as well.
Kerala’s
Hindus have registered a steady decline in proportionate terms, falling from
68.5 per cent of the population in 1901 to 54.9 per cent by 2011. This lends
teeth to Natesan’s attack on the Christian community for its hypocrisy.
Thousands of Hindus — the Ezhavas, in particular — have been, he alleges, lured
away from their religious homes.
While
church authorities stayed stuck in a past, the state moved on and there is now
a climate of awareness wherein uncomfortable questions are bound to be raised.
Diversionary tactics like ‘love jihad’ or ‘narcotics jihad’ will not wash
anymore.
-----
Valson
Thampu is a former principal of St Stephen’s College, Delhi
Source: The Telegraph
----
Jesuit
Warns Bishops against 'Trap of Sangh Parivar'
Our Special
Correspondent, New Delhi
16.09.21
The priest has argued that such narratives are a “highly manipulative
way” of pushing more urgent national issues to the back-burner.
-----
A Jesuit
priest has warned bishops against falling into “the meticulously planned trap
of the Sangh Parivar” by lending credibility to the Right-wing narrative about
“love jihad” and adding to it by making claims about a “narcotics jihad”.
Jesuit
priest-activist Cedric Prakash has penned the open letter at a time when a
Kerala bishop has kicked up a controversy by making the communally loaded
allegation that “narcotics jihad” was leading youths of the state to drugs.
Fr
Prakash’s letter focuses more on the older claims about love jihad — a
Right-wing concoction denoting an alleged conspiracy to indoctrinate non-Muslim
women through marriage.
The priest
has argued that such narratives are a “highly manipulative way” of pushing more
urgent national issues to the back-burner.
Stating
that there are constitutional guarantees for every adult citizen to choose a
religion and for that matter even to marry a person of his or her choice, Fr
Prakash has pointed out that there are sufficient provisions in the Code of
Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to address forced marriages and kidnapping.
“Unfortunately
the utterances of some clearly demonstrate how easily one can fall into a
meticulously planned trap of the Sangh Parivar that clearly NEGATES the right
to preach, practice and propagate one’s religion/faith. It also reinforces the
attitude of the Church towards women — particularly when we have begun talking
about SYNODALITY!” Fr Prakash’s letter states.
Synodality
is a process of consultations — a devolution of decision-making — between
clerics and the laity that is being advocated by Pope Francis as opposed to the
existing top-down approach.
Fr Prakash
has attached to the letter an article on the “bogey of love jihad” and drawn
similarities between Kerala bishop Joseph Kallarangatt accusing Muslims of
making Catholic girls victims of “love and narcotic jihad” and former Gujarat
chief minister Vijay Rupani saying his government would deal strictly with
those who trap Hindu girls and elope with them.
“Both the
Bishop and the BJP CM are wrong on several counts — and in fact, their words
are patently unconstitutional. Their words are reflective of a patriarchal
mindset — which regards an adult Catholic/Hindu woman as a ‘moron’ who is
unable to think and decide for herself: be it in marrying the person of one’s
choice or for that matter embracing the religion of one’s choice,” Fr Prakash
said.
“Secondly,
both the Bishop and the CM have absolutely nothing substantive to prove their
point: the Bishop is certainly unable to say how many Kerala Catholic girls
have married Hindus or people from other faiths; or for that matter just left
the Catholic Church. It is exactly the same for the CM.
“The Bishop
needs to have the honesty to address the scandals: financial and sexual within
the Church; the CM needs to address the dismal state of affairs on every possible
front in Gujarat! Both Bishop and CM should also take a visible and vocal stand
in championing the rights (particularly, dignity and equality) of women in the
Church and Country,” Fr Prakash added.
Source: The Telegraph
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