Love Jihad: Conversion to Islam
(Chapter 8)
In India, every second day, a case of ‘Love Jihad’ is reported. This is part of modern jihad being carried out at household level. Organiser has meticulously documented over 200 cases in a period of two years. OpIndia has compiled its own documentation. (See references below.) The end result of these attempts is often fatal for Hindu women.
Consensual interfaith marriages between adults who freely choose each other, with full transparency, no deception, no pressure, and no hidden agenda, are a separate category. They happen, and they end there. Those marriages are not the issue under discussion.
Coining of Love Jihad
The term Love Jihad gained prominence in Kerala around 2009. Christian clergy (Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Conference / Syro-Malabar Church) did raise strong early alarms about Muslim men allegedly targeting Christian girls for conversion via relationships, with claims of thousands affected. Hindu organizations (e.g., Hindu Janajagruti Samiti) amplified and spread it nationally, sometimes tracing earlier usage to Karnataka (2007–2009). The term appeared in Kerala High Court proceedings in 2009.
The Kerala Story movie: It is loosely inspired by a few real cases of Kerala women (e.g., 3–4 documented instances of conversion + joining ISIS around 2016–2018.
Anti-Conversion Laws
Several states (mostly BJP-ruled: Uttar Pradesh 2020/2021, Uttarakhand 2018, Himachal Pradesh 2019, Madhya Pradesh 2021, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, etc.) did enact or strengthen “Freedom of Religion” laws explicitly citing concerns over “love jihad” (conversions via force, fraud, allurement, or marriage). These require prior notice/approval for conversions and impose stricter penalties when linked to marriage. Older laws also exist in places like Odisha and Madhya Pradesh since the 1960s–70s.
The phenomenon is better described as decentralized, ideologically motivated or opportunistically networked exploitation (often framed as “love jihad” or “conversion jihad” by victims and investigators) rather than requiring proof of one monolithic “jihad” headquarters.
Multiple cases reported in Maharashtra in 2024–2025 recaps, including Mohsin Sheikh in Mira Road forcing a Hindu woman to convert after she refused marriage, drugging her, and repeated rape. He and family members (Imran Bagwan, Jafar Sheikh, etc.) were arrested under IPC sections for rape, cheating, and hurt.
Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis recently stated publicly that “large numbers” of such cases surface during missing-persons probes in the state. The state cabinet approved a Freedom of Religion Bill in March 2026 explicitly targeting conversions through marriage.
Predators Are no Friends
Predator: Badlands (2025) movie from Hollywood begins with following warning:
Yautja are prey to none. Friend to None. Predator to All.
Later the predator of Yautja did become a prey briefly. But that is a different matter.
These human predators are following their book with their own interpretation. They want that every human being may either be a Muslim or dead.
Young Girls as Predators:
In December 2025, a Hindu girl studying at a coaching centre in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, was allegedly pressured by five of her Muslim classmates to change her religion, her dress, and her diet. The accused girls, all Class 12 students at the same tuition centre, reportedly forced her to wear a burqa, eat non-vegetarian food, and repeatedly tried to persuade her to convert to Islam.
The victim’s brother filed an FIR under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. Two of the accused, Aleena alias Aleena Parveen and Shabiya, filed petitions in the Allahabad High Court seeking to quash the FIR.
On April 16, 2026, a division bench of Justices J.J. Munir and Tarun Saxena refused to quash the case. The court pointed to the victim’s statements recorded under BNSS Sections 180 and 183, and notably to CCTV footage from a nearby alley that showed the victim being made to wear the burqa by the accused girls. The bench held that tangible evidence on record made it improper to quash the FIR at this early stage. To quote Justice Munir speaking for the bench:
Act of 2021 was enacted to curtail an emergent situation in society, where, certain persons go about not professing or propagating their religion, but thrusting it upon others in the belief which somehow makes it to their mind the religion they believe in must be followed by others. If this kind of a trend comes to be seen amongst young people, it is all the more disturbing. This is time in their lives when they should be thinking more towards developing their skills in different fields of education and dedicate themselves in the service of the society and the nation. The Act of 2021 was brought to curtail this emergent mischief, which is heard from different quarters in the country these days, and, of which, we must take judicial notice. A statute, that is enacted to curtail an emergent mischief, if stopped in its tracks at the very early stages of its enforcement, would bog down the statute and frustrate its purpose.
(emphasis added)
The court dismissed both writ petitions and vacated an interim stay on arrest that had previously been granted to one of the petitioners. The Moradabad police investigation continues. The case has been reported widely as an example of alleged peer-level religious coercion among schoolgirls. A Muslim Judge who presided the bench took judicial notice of widespread problem across the country, as quoted above. But they had not anticipated the worst, that happened in Ranchi.
When Friends Become Bait:
The worrisome development is that like Yautja, the predators are able to get help in committing the crime like rape too. It could be the result of same operation as mentioned in Chapter 7 where converted women were showcased as success stories to lure new victims. The mechanism is identical. Victimised women become operational assets. This case from Ranchi stands out where a friend betrayed another girl.
On the night of April 9, 2026, a 25-year-old MDS student from Jamshedpur was lured into a trap by her closest friend.
The victim was pursuing her Master of Dental Surgery degree and staying in a girls’ hostel in Bariatu, Ranchi. Her friend, 26-year-old Oli Vishwakarma, a resident of Hatia Road, Jagannathpur, invited her to what she described as a birthday party at Gokul Vatika Apartments in the Lalpur area. Oli assured her that many girls would be present.
When the victim arrived at the flat, there were no other women there. She found only a man named Danish, described in reports as a doctor, and his friends Shadab, Fawad (also referred to as Fahad Malik or Mohammad Fahad), and at least one other associate. The victim was allegedly served sedative-laced food, likely pizza or cake. She lost consciousness and was raped by Danish.
Police allege that Oli Vishwakarma had conspired with the male accused and deliberately used her friendship to bring the victim to the flat. The case was registered at Lalpur Police Station under IPC sections covering rape, criminal conspiracy, and drugging.
By April 18 and 19, Danish and two other male accused had been arrested. Oli Vishwakarma was detained a few days after the initial arrests. One accused, identified as Malik Sadhab, remained absconding.
Jamshedpur MLA Saryu Roy publicly stated that this case is part of a larger organised racket targeting female students in Ranchi’s education hubs. He alleged that girls who are first trapped and blackmailed are later coerced into acting as bait to draw other girls into similar situations. He demanded a CBI probe into the wider network.
The case drew significant public attention because the person who facilitated the crime was the victim’s own trusted friend. It is being widely discussed in the context of grooming and blackmail networks where victimized women are turned into accomplices.
Islamophobia Defence
It is beyond doubt that these are all criminal acts, per se, but motivation is not the crime. The methodology of crime is same and motive has a religious angle as accused later seek conversion too in some cases and victim is always non-Muslim. However, the defenders on social media would call it Islamophobia. They may also call it blasphemy if it helped but that invoke violence and may land these supporters in prison. Hence, they stop at Islamophobia.
Islamophobia was engineered as a protective ring not around Muslims as people, but around the ideology, clergy, and institutional influence and that its real function is to criminalise examination and reward aggression.
The precedents shows the term is used as an alternative of blasphemy shield in secular societies.
When the Islamic groups and NGOs, religious or not come forward in support of these accused persons, the gloves are off and this inverts the Islamophobia on its head. The help from community proves the point that all these incidents a part of an operation organized at grass root level even if without a central command.
What is the intellectual logic of these NGOs which support these criminals? The logic lies in the concept called Dar Ul Harb and Dar Ul Islam. This concept makes all Muslims in India as victims. We will discuss these concepts along with the Flag of India in the next Chapter.
References:
- There is no Love Jihad in India: https://www.mha.gov.in/MHA1/Par2017/pdfs/par2020-pdfs/ls-04022020/23.pdf
- Organiser reports 200 cases: https://organiser.org/2025/01/01/271689/bharat/love-jihad-recap-of-2024-200-cases-of-how-hindu-women-were-lied-trapped-tortured-forced-to-convert-to-islam/
- OpIndia: https://www.opindia.com/tag/love-jihad/
- Full Judgment: https://images.assettype.com/barandbench/2026-04-17/tnv2a1hk/Aleena_alias_Aleena_Parveen_and_another_v_State_of_UP_and_Others.pdf