Indian Muslim student arrested under 'love jihad' law

December 4, 2020 News 6 Views

The 21-year-old scholar was arrested on Wednesday in Uttar Pradesh, solely days after the state enacted the regulation focusing on “love jihad” — a time period utilized by radical Hindu teams who accuse Muslim males of making an attempt to transform girls of different faiths to Islam.

Uttar Pradesh enacted the anti-conversion regulation, which makes “pressured” or “fraudulent” spiritual conversions a non-bailable offense with a most punishment of 10 years in jail, on Saturday.

In accordance with the regulation, a wedding will probably be declared “null and void” if the conversion of the girl is solely for that objective. These wishing to vary their faith after marriage want to use to prime district authorities.

The identical day the regulation got here into impact, a person named Tikaram Rathone filed a report back to police, alleging the male scholar was making an attempt to coerce his 20-year-old Hindu daughter, who’s married, to transform to Islam and marry him.

Rathore alleged the person had developed a friendship along with his daughter at college, and needed to “coerce, coax and attract” her into changing.

“Regardless of fixed disapproval from me and my household, he (the accused) is placing stress on us by abuse and dying threats,” Rathore mentioned in his grievance.

Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district confirmed by way of Fb that the person was arrested on Wednesday.

Critics have known as the regulation Islamophobic, unconstitutional, and regressive. Many are involved it would result in misuse and harassment, and that the regulation will make it more and more tough for interfaith to marry within the nation.

Different states — together with Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, and Assam — have introduced plans to observe Uttar Pradesh and introduce comparable legal guidelines.

All 5 states are ruled by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP), which has confronted accusations of perpetuating anti-Muslim sentiment.

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The BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has come below fireplace for comparable legal guidelines earlier than. Final 12 months, the BJP-ruled state of Himachal Pradesh amended its anti-conversion regulation, prohibiting conversion by misrepresentation, pressure, fraud, undue affect, coercion, allurement or marriage. It additionally launched non-bailable jail sentences for the offense.

Critics of the BJP say spiritual polarization has elevated since Modi swept into energy in 2014. Hindu-Muslim marriages have lengthy attracted controversy in India — however tensions have ratcheted up recently, with the idea of “love jihad” dominating headlines in latest months.

In October, the favored jewellery model Tanishq ran an commercial that includes an interfaith couple — a Hindu lady and a Muslim man. After right-wing Indians accused them of selling “love jihad” and trolled them closely on-line, the corporate pulled the advert, saying it feared for the “effectively being” of its workers.

In November, authorities accused Netflix of doing the identical, after its TV sequence “A Appropriate Boy” featured a scene through which a Hindu lady and a Muslim man share a kiss in entrance of a Hindu temple. Narottam Mishra, BJP member and residential minister of Madhya Pradesh state, mentioned the scene harm “spiritual sentiments” and directed officers to look into authorized motion towards the sequence’ producer and director.