Love jihad

Love jihad (also known as Romeo jihad) is a moral panic conspiracy theory that is most prominent in India, in which Muslim men are coordinating to hoodwink Hindu women so as to convert them into Islam and eventually achieve a major demographic change.
==Rhetoric==
What’s interesting about this theory is how it deviates from the usual Islamophobic stereotypes of how Muslims are wild-eyed, swarthy, hateful terrorist savages who destroy while the strong Hindus protect their trillion-year-old culture. Here, Muslims are portrayed as handsome and strong Chads who are able to instantly seduce any hot Hindu woman in a 10-mile radius by offering them a ride on their bikes.
This rhetoric also enforces misogynist views of women as innocent, helpless, naive victims who lack authority and agency, and hence should not be allowed to marry someone from another faith and must be viewed with suspicion if they do.Love Taboos: Controlling Hindu-Muslim Romances by Charu Gupta (Feb 5 2021) The India Forum The conversion of women is also punished more severely in Uttar Pradesh’s love jihad law (sponsored by Yogi Adityanath) to "give justice to women," taking the exact same presumption as described above.Uttar Pradesh’s ‘Love Jihad’ Law Is Sexist, Unconstitutional by Surbhi Karwa & Prannv Dhawan (03 Dec 2020) article 14.
Until 2023, only Muslim men were the prime confederates of this delusional conspiracy. In May 2023, a movie titled The Kerala Story came out and roped Muslim women into it, claiming that Muslim women try to become friends with naive Hindu girls who do not know anything about their culture and religion, and then later get them kidnapped into joining ISIS. As usual with Hindu nationalist rhetoric, the accuracy of these claims is hilariously bad. However, what's less funny is how pervasive the rhetoric has become, even in mainstream media, and how many give veracity and credibility to the movie.‘32000 Kerala women in ISIS’: Misquotes, flawed math, imaginary figures behind filmmaker’s claim by Archit and Shinjinee Majumder (08 Nov 2022) Altnews
==Laws themselves==
Love jihad laws have ushered in all over India in several BJP states. They all came after Narendra Modi took office. First, it was Uttrakhand in 2018, then Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in 2020, and Gujrat in 2021.
On 7th November 2020, Uttar Pradesh under BJP passed an ordinance named 
It ordains:
How the state would determine that conversion was the 'sole purpose' of the marriage is left unclear.
It also reads:
Basically, even if the woman says she is changing her faith willingly, it is up to the husband to prove his innocence. (Muslims are, of course, immediately presumed guilty.)
The love jihad laws in Uttar Pradesh have been compared to anti-miscegenation laws in other countries, such as the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany, which banned marriages between Jews and those of “German blood,” and the laws in Apartheid-era South Africa which prevented marriages between its four racial classifications (White, Coloured, Indian, and Black).‘Love Jihad’: A Homage to Nuremberg & Anti-Miscegenation Laws by Vakasha Sachdev (22 Nov 2020, 6:00 AM IST) The Quint. While the Uttar Pradesh love jihad law does not outright ban interfaith marriages, forcible conversion is already outlawed by the Indian Constitution, and the right to privacy, right to marriage, and the right to practice a religion or faith of one’s choice preclude any interference by the state, the courts, the police, Hindu far-right goons, and even the families of the couple.
===Catalyst for harassment===
The laws also make it frighteningly easy and efficient for Hindutva goons to harass and intimidate interfaith couples. The Special Marriage Act requires a couple to give a 30-day notice before the marriage is registered, which is then publicly displayed “conspicuously”THE SPECIAL MARRIAGE ACT, 1954 on the notice boards of registration offices. These contain names, addresses, occupations, and photos of the couple. This allows personal information to easily spread across social media, effectively doxing the couple.To Harass Hindu-Muslim Couples, Rightwing Activists Are Now Using Their Marriage Documents
 a non-profit news website known for its undercover investigative journalism, revealed the coercive tactics used by Hindutva groups to intimidate and harass interfaith couples,Investigation uncovers coercive tactics Hindutva groups use to battle 'love jihad' by Scroll (6 Oct 2015) ScrollOperation Juliet: Busting the Bogey of Love Jihad by Cobrapost (4 Oct 2015) Cobrapost such as threatening, lynching, and drugging.
===Rules for thee but not for me===
Ironically, Hindu far-right groups themselves perpetuated and supported love jihad when actually done for their own religion ( justifying it by saying…
And then there's another quote where they're not even remotely subtle about being willing to do whatever it takes to prevent Muslim population growth and enforce the depopulation of Muslims:
==Specific cases==
In many cases, the police were making arrests before the investigation. In January 2021, in Uttar Pradesh, three Muslim men had charges dropped against them and the FIR was expunged because the complaint was found to be fake.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bareilly/love-jihad-case-against-3-muslim-men-dropped-within-24-hours-after-charges-turn-out-to-be-false/articleshow/80075992.cms In December 2020, UP police stopped a Muslim wedding, jailed the couple and assaulted the groom in custody on suspicion of love jihad. They were only released after the bride's family proved that she was a Muslim by birth, not by conversion.https://thewire.in/communalism/up-police-love-jihad-rumours-beat-groom
In December 2020, in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim man named Shahid Mian complained to the police that his daughter, Alisha, was kidnapped by a Hindu named Siddharth Saxena. After the investigation, it was found that the marriage took place before the law was put into effect and the girl testified that she married on her own will. Hence, the case was closed without any arrest and the woman was dropped at her husband’s house.https://indianexpress.com/article/india/in-up-love-jihad-has-two-faces-man-jailed-in-one-case-woman-gets-police-escort-in-other-7095748/
In almost all cases, it is the conservative household that files love jihad complaints, not the supposed victims. is very prevalent in India, and most marriages occur within the same caste and religion. So love marriages, especially outside one’s caste or religion, are extremely uncommon and are detested by many.
Also in December 2020, Uttar Pradesh, in a complete role reversal, a Hindu extremist group named part of the youth-wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, forcibly dragged an interfaith couple of a Hindu bride named Muskan and a Muslim groom named Rashid on their way from the district court after registering their marriage.
After pressure from Bajrang Dal, Muskan’s mother lodged an FIR () against Rashid under the new love jihad ordinance. In this case, too, the marriage had taken place before the law was put into effect and the girl clearly said she married on her own will. However, this time, Rashid and his brother were arrested and jailed and the bride was forcibly escorted to be dropped at a shelter home for destitute women. This became the first arrest made under the new Uttar Pradesh’s love jihad law.
Muskan suffered a miscarriage after 5 days at the shelter. “I held my baby for a few minutes before letting it go down the toilet” she stated “They killed my baby.”
==Celebrity gossip==
A popular source for love jihad claims comes from cherry-picking some celebrity interfaith marriages where a Muslim man marries a Hindu woman. Commonly circulated examples include: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/hindu-mahasabha-to-khans-convert-if-you-love-your-wives/article6815608.ece
* who married 
* who married in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony.
* who divorced Reena Dutta after 20 years of marriage and two children and then later divorced after 15 years of marriage and another child.
This ignores the many instances where the opposite has happened; where a Hindu man marries a Muslim woman.https://web.archive.org/web/20140901101501/https://muslimmirror.com/eng/other-side-of-love-jihad-list-of-renowned-hindus-who-had-a-muslim-wife/ Such as sister husband is a Hindu, is a Hindu and his wife was a Muslim, wife is also Muslim, and so is wife is a Muslim while he is a Hindu.
==Investigations and statistics==
About all of the evidence for the urban legend of love jihad rests only on isolated incidents with a stroke of communal colour to allege a grand conspiracy against non-Muslims. However, it does not stand up to statistical scrutiny.
Interfaith marriages in India are just about 2.2% of all marriages.https://paa2011.princeton.edu/papers/111281https://iussp.org/sites/default/files/event_call_for_papers/Final%20revised%20Edited%20Mixed%20Marriage%20Paper%5B1%5D.pdf And even among those interfaith couples, the highest percentage was among Christians and Sikhs, not Hindus. A number of studies conducted by research scholars have found that interfaith marriages have a limited impact on society at large. According to the Pew Research Center, religious conversion has had very little impact on the demographics of religious groups; in fact, more people have converted into Hinduism than left it.https://www.pewforum.org/2021/06/29/religion-in-india-tolerance-and-segregation/ 
Despite little statistical justification of love jihad being a noteworthy issue, multiple investigations by multiple investigative agencies all across India have been conducted; all of which failed to provide any evidence for the existence of love jihad.
In October 2018, the (India’s counter-terrorist force) found no evidence of a larger criminal design of forceful conversion and closed the Supreme Court-ordered investigation. https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/no-evidence-love-jihad-nia-probe-interfaith-marriages-kerala-ends-90153 Even the central government has denied love jihad in the parliament.https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/no-cases-love-jihad-kerala-fact-no-such-term-law-govt-parliament-117463
Numerous other Indian states repeatedly probed alleged cases of love jihad from several different agencies and have found the exact same results each time; such as Karnataka's in late 2009 and reaching the conclusion in early 2010,https://www.thehindu.com/news/Karnataka-CID-finds-no-evidence-of-Love-Jihad/article16891851.ecehttps://web.archive.org/web/20180914070453/https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/lsquoNo-love-jihad-movement-in-State/article16024518.ece Kerala's police in late 2009 and reaching the conclusion in early 2012,https://web.archive.org/web/20180914070452/https://www.deccanherald.com/content/35486/kerala-police-have-no-proof.htmlhttps://web.archive.org/web/20131211064437/http://gulftoday.ae/portal/9af0ebf3-d10f-4592-bd7e-9a0dc0d37bc6.aspxhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1FIyh9GJnLEqeJd4mA8RWYIUS64zOa9g-/view and Uttar Pradesh's police in September 2014https://www.reuters.com/article/india-religion-modi-idINKBN0GZ2OC20140904 and the in in September 2020.https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/with-no-credible-evidence-love-jihad-cases-in-kanpur-crumble-2321766https://indianexpress.com/article/india/sit-probe-into-love-jihad-rules-out-conspiracy-angle-outside-funding-7063046/
In fact, the BJP themselves admitted that they had no data or any proper definition available on love jihad.https://www.thequint.com/news/india/laws-on-love-jihad-but-modi-govt-ncw-have-no-data-or-definition#read-more
And yet, the myth persists, even when the concerns are directly dismissed by the supposed victims.
It is abundantly clear that the fear mongering over love jihad was not to raise awareness against forced marriages, or to protect Hindus either; but simply a manufactroversy to capitalise on the disdain of the largely conservative and Hindu population of Uttar Pradesh and other states for interfaith marriages and to further stoke already strong communal tensions.
==See also==
*Hindutva
==External links==
*
* Further covers how Indian society and governance deter interfaith marriage through legal action, condemnation, and harassment.
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Hindu nationalism
Category:Anti-Christian bigotry
Category:Conspiracy theories
Category:Fascism
Category:Genocide
Category:Indian politics
Category:Islamophobia
Category:Moral panics
Category:Nationalism
Category:Reverse discrimination
Category:Sexism