Love is motive in 105 of 135 religious conversions probed in Kerala : Police report

Kozhikode : Over 75 per cent of the cases of conversion to Islam, analysed by the state police in the 2016-17 period, zeroed in on ‘Love’ as the deciding factor – as per the 32-page police report on “Religious Conversions in Kerala” submitted to the State Police Chief on August 19, 2017.

According to a senior police officer involved in the investigation, the terminology ‘Love Jihad’ was coined after investigation in several conversion cases revealed love was being used as a tool to bring non-believers into Islam.

The investigative report, compiled by a special intelligence wing of the state police, puts the reason for 105 out of 135 such conversions in 2016-17 to be love.

To put the matter in perspective, the next big reason cited in the report is broken family – 13, followed by disturbed mind – 7, influence of Islamic ideology – 7 and poverty – 2.

“On overall analysis, it is revealed only a small percentage of persons were converted due to deep interest and belief in Muslim  religion. Majority were converted on pressure of circumstances such as love…,” it says on page 31.

The report begins by referring to numerous complaints on forceful religious conversions in the state and goes on to say how the investigation team probed the complaints in detail and the circumstances that led to the conversions.

The report concludes with a warning note – the prevalent situation is alarming as the forceful conversions will create communal tension between Hindus and Muslims, thus affecting communal harmony in the state.

The report was prepared following largescale complaints of forceful conversion in Kerala and in the wake of widely circulated information coming out from various agencies from the state and the Centre about couples, many of them converted from Hinduism and Christianity, reportedly leaving for Syria to join the Islamic State.

The police report contains details of the investigation conducted into the conversions that took place in the state in 2016 and 2017. It was prepared by the unit after collecting details from the districts in an investigation spanning several months in 2017. The report begins saying  there have been numerous complaints on forceful religious conversions in the state and the investigation probed the complaints in detail and the circumstances that led to the conversions.

The report outlines the modus operandi of the conversions. “Most converted have no political leniency (sic). But for those who have political leniency, most of them have leniency towards CPM. The reason is most of the CPM party workers are from Ezhava community and Ezhava community accounts for about  24 per cent of the total population of Kerala,” the report says.

“In the case of males, persons who have converted to Islam were drunkards and were in the habit of using drugs. The handlers called ‘Dawa Squad’ will approach them and give them awareness to avoid alcohol so that the handlers will get full support from the family and thus handlers could convert the whole family,” the report further says.

While the reason for conversion was studied at the state level, the probe looked into the general level of conversion in Thrissur district given the high numbers there. It was found 36 of the Ezhava community were converted to Islam, followed by Christians(RC) – 26,  while Nair converts were 8 and Christian (Orthodox), 4.“In recent months, a trend is noticed in northern districts that a considerable number of migrant labourers working in Kerala were converted to Islam. Since they were migrant labourers, Hindu fundamental organisations are less interested and thus there will be no complaint and it will become unnoticed,” adds the report about a recent trend.

Terminology Etymology

According to a senior police officer, the terminology ‘Love Jihad’ was coined after investigation in several conversion cases revealed love was being used as a tool to bring non-believers into Islam

Love trumps all ?

Other factors paled in comparison to love when it came to conversions.  While broken family led to only 13 conversions, influence of Islamic ideology was cited to be the cause for just seven conversions.

Source : The New Indian Express