War between state and society rages
The NIA has now been asked to probe a marriage amid charges and countercharges from differing religious groups, after several from Kerala surfaced in Syria, Afghanistan
KOCH I: An idyllic village, TV Pu ram in Kerala’ sKottay am district has turned into a fortress, with a heavy posse of police men guarding a modest three-room house of Akhila Ashokan, now Hadiya Jahan.
The 24-year-old homeopathy doctor has been confined to her house for the past three months after Kerala high court annulled her marriage to a Muslim youth, Shefin Jahan (26).
Her father, Ashokan, an ex-serviceman, had alleged there was forced conversion and raised fears of her being sent to war-hit Syria to join the militant outfit Islamic State( IS ), in the light of 21 missing Muslims, five of them converts, believed to have done the same last year.
Ha di ya rubbished allegations of forced conversion, and questioned her confinement. “My mother gets angry when I do nam az. Id on’ t know why they are con fining me like this ,” she said in a recent video shot by Hinduactivist and author Rahul Easwar.
However, she was not available for comment on whether she wished to goto Syria.
Ashokan said she does. “She told me told me several times that she wants togo to Syria” and treat the injured there. He also pointed to her husband’s “Middle East connections”.
Shefin works in Muscat, and his parents are settled there. He had initially planned to take her there, but the court ruled against his favour.
Ashokan stressed that he wanted to take her to the Middle East and then push her to trouble-torn areas.
Shefin denies all these. Heruesthat he has not been allowed to stay with his wife for more than two days.
The claims and counter-claims went to court. While the HC annulled the marriage, the Supreme Court, further, directed the National Investigation Agency( N IA) to probe the circumstances of the marriage.
The move raised eyebrows, with activists questioning the judicial intervention in personal choices.
They say being a pluralistic society, inter-faithmarriages arecommon and a terror agency probe will leave a question mark on such marriages.
Last week, in north Kerala’s Kannur district, a local court ordered police to give protection to the family of K Rajan, who feared for their lives after his 23-year-old daughter was brought back home following her marriage to a Muslim youth.
In another case, a farmer sniffed trouble when his daughter, A th ira Nambiar (21), who had cut off ties with him, applied for a passport to Yemen on the advise of her handler sin a Muslim outfit’ s hostel.
Thestrife-torncountry, theysaid,was the ideal destination for true believers.
Following court intervention, he got her back. Now in Ar sh a Vi dy a Sam a jam, a Hindu religious school which houses two-dozen girls who returned to Hindui sm, A th ira hates to call herself a victim of “love jihad ”, a term coined by Hindu outfits but claims that certain circumstances led her to Islam.
“There was a big spiritual vacuum for me. All my friends were from Islam and three things attracted me to Islam — promise of heaven, it gives maximum protection to women and a single god. Now I am convinced my religion also ensures these traits,” she said.
Athira and Hadiya were sent to the same Muslim school, Sathyasarani in Malappuram district’s Manjeri, for indoctrination. Their teacher was also the same, ASZai na ba, the president of the National Women’s Front, the women’s wing of Popular Front of India (PFI), a fundamentalist outfit which came into shape after the ban on Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), and whose activists were involved in chopping the palm of a professor who prepared a question paper allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammed.
A state police investigation, initiated in connection with the conversion of Nimisha alias Fathima, one of the missing 21, found similarities in many other cases.
A report submitted to the police chief identified two recognised religious centres in Kozhikkode and Malappuram — Tharbiyathul Islam Sabha and Monunst hi lI slam S ab ha—behind the conversion of 5,793 people between 2011 and 2105. Of these 4,719 were Hindus and 1,074 Christians earlier.
Inmost cases the mod us operandi and the people involved were same.
“There is an organised group behind this. Workers of the fundamentalist group like Popular Front of India came under radar on several occasions. But political leadership were not ready to take it up properly fearing communal tension ,” a senior police officer said.
During hearing in Hadiya’s case, NIA also pointed out the similarities to the SC.
Ha di ya’ sh us band, She fin, a PFIactivist and former administrator of radical sites, however, accused the police of being partial to Muslims.
“In Kerala, RSS and CPI(M) workers kill many political opponents. Can you ban them citing these incidents?” he asked.
With the investigations still on, religious groups on both sides are trying to cash in on the controversy.
Hindu activist E as war, against whom Hadiya’s father had registered a complaint for shooting a video without his consent, said they were not against interfaith marriages.
“Our country always celebrated pluralism. But forced conversions are against the spirit of pluralism. Let us respect all religions and we need a law to check forced conversions,” he said.
But Muslim leaders say the SC order gives much credence to a misnomer called “love jihad.”
“Love jihad is the creation of the Sangh Parivar. There is no forced conversion. We can’ t help if some people are attracted to our religion ,” said HameedVanniamb alam,p resident of the Welfare Party, political wing of the Jamat-e-Islami.
Other Muslim leaders believe the case of 21 missing Muslims was an aberration and the whole community had disowned them. They say it is wrong to paint a larger canvass citing an isolated incident and blame the missing incident for the knee-jerk reactions from judiciary.
Relative soft he missing, however, welcome the state and judi ci an intervention, saying such a stand earlier would have saved their kin.
“More than a year passed since my daughter’ s disappearance. Many agencies probed it but I am yet to get some concrete information. Nobody heard us properly ,” said Bindhu,m other of Nimisha, adding that she was not against any religion or belief but sending innocents to war-torn areas after indoctrination was a cruel game.
For Hadiya, her parents’ fear and the judicial overreach has taken a toll on her personal freedom.
In the video shot by Easwar, her question is: “Is this what you all want? Is this how my life will be?”
ACTIVISTS QUESTION JUDICIAL INTERVENTION IN PERSONAL CHOICES. THEY SAY BEING A PLURALISTIC SOCIETY, INTERFAITH MARRIAGES ARE COMMON AND A TERROR PROBE WILL LEAVE A QUESTION MARK ON SUCH MARRIAGES