KOCHI: Five days after it said Christian girls are lured by radical elements for terror outfit groups such as Islamic State (IS), the Syro-Malabar Church has blamed the ‘politics’ in the state for constantly dodging the issue, thus making Kerala a fertile ground for radical elements.
In an interaction with TNIE, Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) deputy general secretary Fr Varghese Vallikkat, however, clarified it was not targeting any particular community. “Love jihad shouldn’t be viewed only from the love angle, but addressed at a broader level. This is not to target any particular community. Secular political parties should at least accept that love jihad exists here. A small group of people in the state is continuously getting radicalised and it has its links to international and global Islam. It varies in names, but people and leadership of these groups are almost the same,” said Fr Vallikkat.
Though earlier investigations and reports were submitted to the government by various agencies including Vigilance, CBI and special intelligence bureau, no one was ready to discuss it in the public domain, he said. “It’s a major problem we’ve been facing for many years, but secular political parties in Kerala are not interested in discussing these issues. It’s part of their politics,” said Fr Vallikkat. Every death and killing that happens in the state is sidelined as a “isolated” incident, he said. “A series of killings have taken place and yet no mainstream party in the state has addressed the issue. There have been reports that the radical groups were involved in the killings and the government has all the details,” said Fr Vallikkat.
“Even today we received phone calls from worried Christian parents seeking help and counselling for their daughters,” he said. “It’s not about getting married to someone from another religion. In these cases, we don’t see them living happily after the marriage,” said Fr Vallikkat. “We’ve been monitoring t
he issues. The police themselves have revealed in many cases that girls have gone missing after marriage or they have joined the Islamic State and were being used as sex slaves. That means it was not love. Love has been used as a weapon,” he said.
Church reads out circular
Kochi: The Syro-Malabar Church on Sunday read out a pastoral letter. Without backing down from the official statement on its allegations of Christian girls being lured and killed by radical elements, the letter, however, rephrased ‘love jihad’ to ‘inter-religious love affairs with bad intentions’.
DYFI slams love jihad charge
Kochi: The state committee of the Democratic Youth Feder-ation of India (DYFI) criticised the Syro-Malabar Church Synod’s statement that Christian girls are victims of love jihad. DYFI state secretary A A Rahim said the move was very “unfortunate.”
Cannot fight radical Hindu politics by ignoring another such group: Church
Fr Vallikkat said the Church did not want to remain silent.“During the palm chopping incident, the Catholic Church had remained silent because our stance was that he should have been more cautious and prudent as a teacher. “The university had taken disciplinary action against him, and even after winning the case, he was not given his job back because the then government wasn’t interested in it. Nobody questioned the university, but all arrows were shot at the Church. We can’t be silent anymore. If not now, when is the right time to speak?” asked Fr Vallikkat.
“If we talk about the CAA or love jihad, people would say it’s because of the elections. The Church can’t be silenced now. The background in which the CAA was brought up must also be studied. The state cannot fight a radical religious group without addressing another radical issue prevalent here. By ignoring one radical (Islamic) group, no secular party can fight the radical Hindutva politics,” said Fr Vallikkat.
Meanwhile, Kerala Latin Catholic Association state secretary Sherry J Thomas said the Latin Church has not discussed ‘love jihad’. “If it exists, then it should be addressed. But the Church is yet to discuss the issue,” said Sherry.‘No evidence, only isolated incidents’ Media observer Sebastian Paul said that only isolated incidents of love jihad cases have occurred in the state and that there was no evidence with the authorities to substantiate the claim that such cases are increasing.“Tension and conflicts are everywhere already, and the Synod’s statement has created more confusion. The timing of the remark is wrong,” the former Ernakulam MP went on to add.