Christians ‘soft targets’ of love jihad: Minority Commission VC tells Amit Shah
New Delhi: National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Vice-Chairman George Kurian has written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, claiming that Christian girls are “soft targets” for Islamic terror recruiters in Kerala.
In the letter dated September 23, George Kurian wrote: “The spate of organised religious conversions and using the victims for terror activities by trapping them through ‘love jihad’ has shown that the Christian community is a soft target for Islamic radicals.”
George Kurian warned that the issue is serious as it could lead to “communal disharmony” in the state.
He urged the home minister to order a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe in the matter and implement effective law against the spate of religious conversions and use of victims for terror activities by Islamic radicals.
“It is important that the home ministry takes note of this alarming trend and order a probe by the National Investigative Agency and bring in an effective law to curb such fraudulent activities of radicalised elements,” Kurian said.
He then highlighted the fact that out of 21 people who joined Islamic State from Kerala, five were converted from Christianity.
He also cited the case of a 19-year-old Christian girl who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam after being blackmailed and sexually abused.
George Kurian’s statement comes after the NCM received complaints from two Christian families.
First, the Kozhikode incident in which a Christian college student was allegedly raped by the accused after she was given juice spiked with sedatives. The accused allegedly filmed the act and then used the recording to force the victim to convert to Islam.
Police alleged that when the victim resisted the “attempt to convert”, she was abducted from the hostel.
The Kozhikode victim’s parents have filed a case with the Nadakavu police station against 19-year-old Jasim, who was her classmate at a coaching centre in Kozhikode.
According to the complaint made by the victim’s father, his daughter along with her two friends had visited Sarovaram Bio Theme Park in the city on July 7 and met Jasim there accidentally.
The father further alleged that his daughter was later drugged and sexually abused in a building in the park, adding that the accused recorded videos of the crime.
Later, Jasim allegedly blackmailed her with the videos and forced her to convert to Islam.
Highlighting the second case, Kurian said a girl from Delhi was allegedly “allured and abducted” to a West Asian country. Kurian said the girl’s parents complained that the girl “could have been misled/cheated/brainwashed/abducted and led astray”.
He added that the crime was committed with “very nefarious designs like joining an outfit such as Islamic State (IS) or being used as a slave.”
While the RSS and its affiliates such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have been carrying out campaigns against instances of love jihad, this is the first time a member of a statutory body like the NCM has used the term to point out that Christians were being targeted by radical Islamists
The National Minority Commission Vice-Chairman’s letter comes after the Kozhikode incident came to light following a complaint by the victim’s parents with the commission.
Earlier, the NIA had investigated 11 such cases including that of Hadia, a Hindu girl who married a Muslim, among 89 other inter-caste marriages in Kerala and found no basis for the allegations.