Sort Of A Love Jihad

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam

21 November 2025

Sarabjeet Kaur, 48, who accompanied the Sikh Jattha to Pakistan and did not return, appeared before a magistrate in Sheikhupura on Saturday and recorded her sworn statement that she embraced Islam and married a Pakistani citizen, Naseer Hussain, of her free will without any pressure, reported Pakistani media.

A purported video also emerged in which she appeared telling the magistrate that she knew Naseer for the last nine years, loved him, and was embracing Islam out of her own volition.

“She expressed her desire before Judicial Magistrate Shahbaz Hassan Rana that she wishes to live with her husband. Ahmad Hassan Pasha Advocate, a member of the Sheikhupura District Bar, represented Kaur in the court. In her statement, Kaur said she independently decided to convert to Islam and contracted marriage with the Pakistani man, and now she wants to live with her husband, Naseer Hussain,” reported the Pakistan based The Express Tribune.

Good to know that an ERSTWHILE Sikh woman is embracing Islam of her own accord. But this is ostensible. We don't know whether she embraced Islam willingly without any force or coercion or whether she was pressured to accept Islam. She chose Islam after getting married to a Pakistani Muslim man.

A Pakistani journalist friend of mine, who requested not to disclose his name, sent an email to me and stated that the whole issue was suspicious, though Sarabjeet was indeed in love with the Pakistani man. She may have been abducted when she accompanied the Sikh Jattha to Pakistan. Now the Police are harassing her despite the Lahore HC asking the police not to harass her. Police and the Army in Pakistan openly defy the court orders and have no fear of the judiciary. Lawlessness, thy name is Pakistan!

Many times, police help Muslims in Pakistan to change the religions of Hindus and Christians, using force and intimidation. That apart, the man Naseer too could have chosen his wife's earlier faith! The best arrangement would have been to stick to their respective faiths even after marriage; the woman remaining a Sikh and the man retaining his Islam. But this is not possible in a conservative and orthodox Pakistani Muslim society where even a legendary cricketer Like Wasim Akram's Australian wife (his second wife) accepted Islam to validate her marriage (in an Islamic way) with arguably the greatest south-paw pacer in the history of the game.

Rita Luthra from Kanpur, India, became Samina Abbas after getting married to the great Pakistani batsman Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani. Mind you, both the cricketers are world famous and well-travelled. Zaheer mostly lived in England as he played for Gloucestershire county for many years, 13 seasons from 1972 to 1985, to be precise. Yet, their wives became Muslims. But they (Akram and Zaheer) didn't become a Christian or Hindu. Being so famous, they could have retained their wives' faiths and refused to change their religions.

This is an example of Elite Love Jihad which does exist in the sub-continent however hard you may deny it. Embracing one's husband's religion after marriage always reeks of something fishy. Is opting for a new religion in a jiffy a child's play?

In the case of 48-yr-old Sarabjeet, it's being surmised and rumoured that she was abducted by Naseer Hussain with the help of police and locals. Immediately she became a Muslim without 'coercion'. This doesn't sound convincing. What did she find so striking in Islam as to accept it after relinquishing her Sikhism which remained her faith for nearly fifty years?

All these things must be probed but who'll take the initiative as the relations with Pakistan are so bad and bitter at the moment and where girls from the minorities are routinely made Muslims and none dares to protest.

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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian

URL:   https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/love-jihad/d/137721

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