“But Hindu men also commit crimes against Hindu women.”

This is the argument many women put forward when the issue of Love Jihad comes up.

Of course, Hindu men commit crimes against Hindu women, just like Muslim men commit crimes against Muslim women, Sikh men against Sikh women, Christian men against Christian women and so on. These crimes are of various nature, some very very serious. (For that matter women also commit crimes against men, but it is out of scope of this write up). As a society we have acknowledged these crimes and made laws, often strict, to prevent them. As these crimes are often social in nature, only law is not sufficient to deal with them, so we also teach our young and try to mold the society in the desired manner.

Having acknowledged these crimes exist, lets now see why these crimes are different from what is popularly called “Love Jihad”.

1 Hate crime : A crime is considered a hate crime if the victim was targeted based on their identity. For example, muggings happen in New York subway, but if someone mugs only Jewish people, then it is not just a mugging, it is a hate crime and the criminal is charged with stricter laws. The same applies to Love Jihad cases where Hindu women are specifically targeted. In Ajmer sex scandal, out of the 250 victims, how many were Muslim? It was hate crime, not a social crime. Clubbing them with regular crimes is deliberate obfuscation to lower the seriousness of these crimes.

2 Based in Islamic doctrine : Islam treats Kafir and Muslim women differently in every aspect. For example, Kafir women can be kept as slaves but can not be married. On the other hand, you can not enslave a Muslim woman. These attitudes are extremely misogynistic and kafir-phobic which lead to many of these crimes. When your ideology dehumanizes an entire group of people, your ideology is encouraging crimes against that group. Hence Abduls feel no shame in hiding their identity or forcing Hindu women to convert and worse. This is not a regular crime, this is religious.

3 Backed by the wider society : As seen in the recent case in Pune, when a Hindu underage girl is abducted the entire Muslim society seems to hush it up. The mother of the accused, the Maulvi who converts and marries the girl knowing fully well she is underage, the family, even the first wife or wives fully support these criminal acts. Ever heard a Muslim whistle-blower saving a Hindu girl? This points to a very unhealthy mindset that is different from regular crimes. This makes saving these girls far far more difficult.

4 Repeating patterns : Many patterns repeat in these cases. It may appear simplistic, but faking identity, use of force and intimidation, targeting underage girls, conversion, involvement of more than just one person, violence etc repeat in many cases. Not to deny other complexities, but this obvious presence of recurring patterns itself makes these crimes different from other crimes. The reason we are discussing crime is to prevent it right? Then failing to identify patterns will only lead to failure to prevent such crimes.

5 Organized apologia : A tell tale clue is the existence of organized intellectual class that keeps denying love jihad exists. No such gangs exist to deny regular crimes. On the other hand popular media keeps glorifying relations between Hindu girls and Muslim men, but not the other way around. How many Feminism and Youth forums on Instagram have covered the 100s of attacks on Hindu men for talking to Muslim women? None. The very existence of such people in media, academia, entertainment etc reveals that the nature of these crimes is indeed different.

6 : Disturbing no of underage cases : A truly disgusting aspect that is common is the shocking no of underage girls being groomed by older men. If you look at the recent cases from Delhi, Uttarakhand, Pune etc, ALL of them involve underage girls incapable of consent. This phenomenon is the clearest evidence of organised grooming. Islamic doctrine permits relations with underage girls as long as they have hit puberty, but very young girls are also easy to brainwash and turn against their families and society. Anyone calling this organized pedophilia as “just interfaith love” is part of this pedophilia grooming gang, nothing less.

So next time anyone says “But Hindu men also commit crimes against Hindu women”, tell them they may or may not know it, but they are part of a grooming gang and they should be ashamed of themselves.

(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @total_woke_ on June 4, 2023, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)