Darul Uloom Deoband, one of the most influential Islamic seminaries in South Asia, condemned “love jihad,” a headline-grabbing name given by Sangh Parivar organisations for inter-religious marriages that are allegedly a ruse for conversion, on Friday.
Without naming any political party, the seminary said the “bogey of ‘love jihad’” was being raised by people with vested interests. The Islamic seminary termed “illegal” marriages with Hindu girls after their forcible conversion to Islam.
Ashraf Usmani, press secretary of the seminary, told TheHindu that Islam did not allow such marriages. “It would be an illegitimate and illegal act to dupe a Hindu girl and forcibly convert her through marriage. In our view, forced conversion of a girl or a boy just to get married was unacceptable.
“How can ‘love jihad’ be acceptable? Islam treats women with the utmost respect. It does not allow boys to flirt with girls. How can it allow them to forcibly convert women of other faiths,” he wondered. “We are quite concerned at the manner in which the issue of ‘love jihad’ is being misused to disturb communal harmony. People with vested interests are exploiting it to pit one community against the other.”
Maulana Mahmood Madani, general secretary of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind (JUH), urged Muslim youths to avoid such a situation that gave the BJP an opportunity to “target” the entire community.
The JUH has substantial clout among Muslims in western Uttar Pradesh, a region BJP leaders in the recent past had described as the epicentre of “love jihad.”
The issue of “love jihad” has been a rallying point for several BJP leaders like Yogi Adityanath, ahead of the by-elections in the State on Saturday.
Sangh Parivar-linked organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Hindu Jagran Manch, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha decided in August to join hands to set up new fronts, particularly in western Uttar Pradesh, to fight “love jihad.”
