[Reader-list] Love Jihad- A New Phrase Being Added to Lexicon of Hate Politics!
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
shuddha at sarai.net
Fri Oct 23 18:55:41 IST 2009
Dear All,
Frankly, I am totally fascinated by the concept of a 'Love Jihad' and
salute and admire all those who thought it up in the first place. All
power to their advances. May they win as many converts as they can.
And in this, I am totally non-denominational. I think we should do
our best to encourage Hindu and Muslim and Christian zealots, Maoists
and Ambedkarite enthusiasts, nationalists and separatists, to all
carry on protracted guerilla love jihad actions, each trying to out
do the other in seductive bravado, so that we, the as yet unswayed
and eternally swayable, can witness and delight in the million
competitive moves of a generalized amorous insurgency. It can only do
wonders to the jaded libidos of our depressed society. Imagine
hundreds of clandestine seduction cells going about trying to convert
the billions through audacious and intelligent amourous moves. I
can't wait to see this juicy scenario unfold. And frankly, while it
is utterly reasonable to demand an end to hate, I find it a bit
difficult to demand that one's so called enemy decides to win one
over by acts of 'love'. What would one say to a love jihadi - " don't
make love, make war?'
What a vast improvement a love-jihad is to hectoring hate speech and
the boring and utterly pointless act of planting bombs in dustbins in
public places, or suicide attacks on ill paid policemen or government
organized pogroms and state sponsored death squads. if all the
fundamentalists of every religion and political persuasion were to
suddenly turn into expert casanovas, what we would have is a vastly
improved and more interesting world. And then, of course our counter-
insurgent forces would also have to brush up on their 'opening
lines', and possibly read the Kama-Sutra and the Perfumed Garden with
care. What a massive turn-on all this would be.
I would love to be a 'love jihadi', or if not to be one (I may not
have all the necessary skills, even if I had the urgency of desire,
and so, may not qualify as the most suitable candidate), at least to
meet one, as I am always willing and open to acts of intelligent
seduction. Hoping for a proliferation of love jihad as a way out of
the monotony of terror and counter-terror.
best
Shuddha
On 23-Oct-09, at 1:48 PM, Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi wrote:
> Dear Venu,
> the concept of winning over with "love" is not a new concept, High
> Court of
> Karnataka is also keen to know the full impact of these missing
> girls from
> communities, Karnataka has over 34 cases of missing girls in last ten
> months, and two girls is only tip of the iceberg.It may be
> interesting for
> you to know that this missing girls are not only from "Hindu " but
> also from
> different followers of faith and communities.That the media woke
> up to
> this new kind of reportage to sensationalise the trivial issue of
> matter of
> choice by any adult female is the issue.
>
> Regards,
> Rajen.
>
> On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 4:31 PM, Venugopalan K M
> <kmvenuannur at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> What is so much there to probe about love affairs between people of
>> different faiths?
>> What is there to probe into cases of conversion from on faith to
>> other
>> so long as proselytizing is perfectly recognized as constitutional
>> and
>> legal in secular India?
>> You convince me by reason (or even by giving me soaps) that
>> Islam or
>> Christianity is a better faith than Hiduism; I start thinking that
>> Hinduism is really not good for ME and take a decision to covert as a
>> Muslim or a Christian.
>> How can then one assume that all this happen only because of
>> inflow of
>> mysterious foreign funds plus destabilizing motivations linked with
>> it?
>> Why the mysterious inflow of foreign funds, rather,is not checked by
>> routine regulatory measures than by resorting to ways producing hypes
>> and instilling fears in the minds of people about forcible
>> conversion?
>> True that parents of at least two Hindu girls allegedly lured by the
>> activists of so called 'Love Jihadis' did come up with habeous corpus
>> writs following the disappearance of these girls from their houses.
>> It may also be true that the girls ultimately decide to go back to
>> their parents on the basis of own choice, in a court of law.
>>
>> But why should this be a reason for widespread fear about girls of
>> mature age being trapped into 'Love Jihad'? What is the connection
>> between love, choice of life partner on the one side, and the
>> interventions by the parents of girls,the police and the court on
>> the
>> other in making out such inter religion love marriages involving
>> conversions as a huge security threat for the entire nation?
>>
>> Would it not have made more sense for the media to take up such
>> stories beyond the 'user friendly' but boundlessly ridiculous new
>> coinage in the lexicon of hate politics like "Love Jihad"?
>> The latest response to the so called Love Jihad by the VHP and the
>> obscur Durgavahini is also being enthusiastically propagated by a
>> section of the Malayalam press; the eveninger Flash News(of M/s
>> Kerala
>> Kaumudi)on 10th October carried a two page featured item about how
>> Durgavahini, the womens wing of the VHP is planning to appear in a
>> big
>> way by campaigning in favour of imposing more parental controls on
>> educated Hindu girls. Going by such reports, moral policing perhaps
>> even more ugly than the one resorted by Sri Ram Sene in Karnataka is
>> to set to take off in Kerala under the direct patronage of VHP
>> employing its women cadres.(Fortunately, not many of them are here
>> around for the time being though the Flash News & Co apparently want
>> to get them more popularity and legitimacy.)
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: <indiathinkersnet at yahoogroups.com>
>> Date: Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 10:19 AM
>> Subject: [indiathinkersnet] Love Jihad ?
>> To: indiathinkersnet at yahoogroups.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Kerala HC wants probe into 'love jihad'
>>
>>
>> http://www.indianexpress.com/news/kerala-hc-wants-probe-into-love-
>> jihad/523630/
>>
>> Kerala has a new concern: "love jihad". The state High Court on
>> Wednesday directed the Kerala Police and Union Home Ministry to probe
>> the alleged movement, under which young Muslim boys reportedly target
>> college girls for conversion by feigning love.
>>
>> The court also asked the state and Centre to look into the sources
>> that "fund" the love jihad, the number of girls who have got "trapped
>> in the racket" in the past three years and its extremist links, if
>> any.
>>
>> Justice K T Sankaran was hearing anticipatory bail applications of
>> two
>> Muslim youths, accused of "luring" two MBA students into marriage for
>> reportedly the purpose of religious conversion. The court rejected
>> their bail pleas.
>>
>> The two youths were allegedly associated with Campus Front, a student
>> outfit of the right-wing Muslim organisation Popular Front of India
>> (PFI).
>>
>> Earlier this month, the parents of the two girls had filed a habeus
>> corpus in the high court after their daughters were found missing. On
>> being produced in court, the girls deposed that they were
>> "trapped" by
>> the youths and forced to convet to Islam. Allowing them to go with
>> their parents, the court had asked the police to probe the charges of
>> forced conversion after trapping girls in love affairs. The students,
>> originally residents of Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, had been
>> studying in a college in Pathanamthitta. According to them, one of
>> them fell in love with a senior and eloped to marry him. This senior
>> allegedly "handed over" the other girl to his friend. The girls told
>> the court that they were taken to a centre in Malappuram where they
>> were given literature and shown visuals promoting religious
>> extremism.
>>
>> Police officials admit that there are cases of girls having been
>> converted forcibly or "trapped" into adopting Islam. "The groups
>> focused on girls from well-settled families, a majority of them
>> Hindus," sources said.
>>
>> Senior PFI leader Naseerudheen Elamaram refuting charges against his
>> organisation said, "Religious conversion is not a crime; conversion
>> takes place to Hinduism and Christianity also... One cannot paint all
>> love affairs as cases of forced conversions meant for extremist
>> activity."
>>
>> --------------------------------------
>>
>> Conversion: court seeks details
>>
>> DGP told to file a statement
>>
>>
>> Two persons file petitions for anticipatory bail
>>
>> High Court also seeks statement from Centre
>>
>>
>> http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/01/stories/2009100154570500.htm
>>
>> Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the Director
>> General of Police to furnish the court details regarding the
>> number of
>> cases in which women of other religion were forcibly converted to
>> Islam.
>>
>> Justice K. T. Sankaran, while considering anticipatory bail
>> petitions,
>> directed the DGP to file a statement within three weeks on the
>> following aspects as well: is there a movement called `Romeo
>> Jihad' or
>> `Love Jihad' working in the State; if so, what are their plans and
>> projects; which organisations are involved in such activities; where
>> does the money come for all these activities; how many school and
>> college students and youngsters were thus converted into Islam in the
>> last three years; does the alleged project have an all-India basis
>> and
>> magnitude; has it got financial support from abroad; is there any
>> connection between the `Love Jihad' movement and counterfeiting,
>> smuggling, drug trafficking and terrorist activities?
>>
>> The anticipatory bail petition was filed by Shahan Sha and Sirajudeen
>> who have been charged with abduction and forcibly converting two MBA
>> students to Islam. According to the police, the petitioners feigning
>> love had abducted the girls and put pressure on them to convert to
>> Islam. They were taken to a person who was stated to be an organiser
>> of the women's wing of the Popular Front of India. The girls were
>> later produced before the High Court after their parents filed a
>> habeas corpus petition. The court allowed them to go with their
>> parents as per their request.
>>
>> The court, which went through the case diary, said there were
>> indications that several similar instances took place in the State.
>>
>> It was stated that there was a movement called Romeo Jihad or Love
>> Jihad, conceived by a section of the Muslims, by which Muslim boys
>> were directed to pretend love to girls of other religion and get them
>> converted to Islam.
>>
>> The court pointed out that every citizen was entitled to "freedom of
>> conscience and the right to freely to profess, practice and propagate
>> religion as enshrined in Article 25 of the Constitution. This right
>> did not extend to the right to compel a person professing a religion
>> to convert to another religion."
>>
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>> --
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>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>> You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot
>> build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you
>> will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a
>> whole.
>> -AMBEDKAR
>>
>>
>>
>> http://venukm.blogspot.com
>>
>> http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur
>>
>> http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com
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>
>
>
>
> --
> Rajen.
> _________________________________________
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Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net
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