By Matters India Reporter
Kochi, Jan 17, 2020: The Syro-Malabar Synod has come under heavy fire for its allegation that Muslim men feign love to lure Christian girls to Islam and then use them for terrorist activities.
The synod, the apex body of the Oriental Catholic rite, on January 15 alleged that nearly 12 Christian women have been converted to Islam through ‘love jihad’ in the past three years and taken to Syria where some of them might even have been killed.
The church issued a statement through its Media Commission, expressing concern over the “rising number of love jihad” cases in Kerala and called it a part of a larger agenda of the Islamic State (IS) to “threaten the religious and social harmony of Kerala.”
Kerala Director General of Police Loknath Behera says no confirmation that ‘Love Jihad’ happens in Kerala. Behera has denied confirming any incident of ‘love jihad’ in the past two years. He also said his department would look into the Syro-Malabar Church’s allegations.
Father Kuriakose Mundadan, a senior priest of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese and a former secretary of the Presbyterian Council, has sharply criticized the synod’s statement.
Father Mundadan in his column in the January 22 issue of Sathyadeepam (light of truth), a church-run weekly, pointed out that it is only common sense to not make statements that belittle a particular community when the entire nation is facing a crisis due to politics of religion.
Noting that Citizenship Amendment Act would adversely affect the diversity and democracy of the country and that political parties and others took a clear stand on the same, he asked if the stance of the Catholic church was clear. “This question is important as there was no clear stand on the issue from the Catholic Church in Kerala,” he said in the Malayalam article.
“Several girls and boys have converted to Christianity for love and marriage. Does the Church have any data on such conversions?” he asked in the weekly that he once edited.
Even laity groups too have come out against the synod’s statement.
Joseph Varghese, joint secretary of the Kerala Catholic Church Reformation Movement, said the statement is “an attempt to divert attention from serious issues in which (the Church) is entangled. From sex scandals to corrupt land deals, the Church has much to hide, and it is using ‘love jihad for that purpose.”
Jose Pallipadan, vice-president of the Cherupushpa Mission League’s unit in Edappally, a Kochi suburb, said the statement on ‘love jihad’ is a ploy by the Church leadership to cozy up to the federal coalition government led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party.
Church leaders have questioned Father Mundadan’s claim to speak for sections of the Church. Syro Malabar Church Media Commission secretary Father Antony Thalachelloor said the priest’s article in Sathyadeepam does not reflect the Church’s stand.
“The publication is not an organ of the Syro Malabar Church. It is run by the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese. The views expressed by the priest are personal; the synod’s statement is the official stand of the Church,” he added.
The Archdiocesan Transparency Movement, a predominantly laity group of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, says the synod allegation are an attempt to divert people’s attention from the internal problems in the Church.
“The Church has witnessed an unprecedented number of financial scams, clandestine sale of Church property, sexual abuse cases against bishops and priests and priests and bishop getting arrested,” the movement pointed out in a statement issued on January 17.
It warned the synod allegation will disturb the social harmony in Kerala and encourage communal hatred.
The sudden and unexpected stance taken by the Church has set social media abuzz. According to activists, it will only help the BJP and Hindutva organizations.
Kerala Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac dismissed the Church allegations as baseless. He said the police should be left free to conduct an inquiry if any new cases (of ‘love jihad’) are reported.
The Syro Malabar Church’s statement drew upon a 2016 report tabled by the then chief minister in the Kerala Assembly, in which it was reported that 21 missing youths from Kerala, including women and children, were reported to be in Islamic State (IS) camps.
Father Thalachelloor alleged that though complaints against forcible conversion of girls by seducing or blackmailing them with intimate photographs are on the rise, police have failed to take prompt action to curb such incidents.
‘Love jihad’ is a term coined by Hindu fundamentalist groups, referring to an alleged campaign by Muslim men to convert Hindu girls in the guise of love.
The Syro-Malabar Church claimed the sudden increase in ‘love jihad’ cases has been reported to the police, but they did not investigate the matter properly, forcing them to pass a resolution on January 15.
The Church’s statement assumes significance in the light of an incident of a 19-year-old Christian woman who was allegedly threatened by a Muslim man for conversion in Kozhikode last year.
The case came to light in September when the woman’s parents filed a police complaint, alleging that she was lured by a man named Jasim, whom she met at her coaching center.
The father of the woman alleged that Jasim drugged his daughter and recorded obscene videos of her, which were later used to blackmail her.
“The complaint said that the accused was not only trying to convert the girl but the entire family by blackmailing them,” said an officer from Nadakkavu police station over the phone.
George Kurian, vice-chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, cited the case of a Christian girl from Delhi who went missing last year. “She was traced to the UAE after I alerted the government about this. The girl was brought to the Indian embassy in UAE where she told her family that she was forced to convert,” he added.
“Conversion, per se, is not a problem, but in these cases, the conversion was not into Islam but into terrorism,” he said.
Kurian on January 16 wrote to Behera seeking a report within 21 days on the alleged ‘love jihad’ cases.
Kerala Minister for Minorities Welfare K.T. Jaleel too denounced the church’s claims as “completely baseless and exaggerated.”
Jaleel said ‘love jihad’ does not exist in Kerala and that police have conducted detailed investigations into such suspected cases and found no evidence of ‘love jihad’ in them.