India Muslims Dismiss ‘Jihad Love’ Claims

"Jihad is the movement launched for some good cause and anything such as love jihad is both unislamic and condemnable," member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangimahli told PTI on Tuesday, August 26.

This is an attempt to gain political mileage and the entire community "cannot be put in the dock" over a few incidents.

Muslims were angrily commenting on the spread on the so-called ‘love jihad’ term which was coined by Hindu groups for alleged efforts to get non-Muslim girls to convert to Islam through love affairs.

The issue had come up during the state BJP's working committee meeting in Mathura this weekend. Yet, it was dropped from the resolution at the last minute following allegations that the party was out to fan communalism.

Farangimahli and other scholars and religious leaders stressed that forced conversion are not acceptable in Islam.

"There is no no movement such as love jihad being carried out by Muslims..., there had been a couple of incidents of conversion for marriage but the entire community cannot be put in the dock over them.... love jihad is a wrong propaganda. We take it that this so called campaign is only to gain political mileage which would also weaken communal brotherhood in the country," Farangimahali said.

"We are against a Muslim girl or boy forcing a person of any other religion to convert for marriage ... This leads to negativity in marriage", he said.

The same opinion was shared in other fatwas issued earlier by the renowned Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband.

In separate fatwas issued on March 8, 2012 and March 22, 2012, Deoband said that embracing Islam only for marriage was wrong and it is better not to enter into such a matrimony.

Using force to convert is forbidden in Islam; and anyone who does so acts against Allah Almighty’s clear injunction in the Qur’an.
/SR