NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Minorities on Monday expressed concern over incidents of Christian girls being converted to Islam saying, that Christian women have become soft target for Islamist terror recruiters, particularly in Kerala. NCM Vice-Chairperson George Kurian has called the Union Home Ministry to take note of the "alarming trend" and order a probe by the National Investigating Agency. Kurian has also sought the government to bring an "effective law to curb such fraudulent activities of radicalised elements".
Kurian said, "The spate of organised religious conversions and using the victims for terror activities by trapping them through 'love jihad' has shown that the Christian community is a soft target for Islamic radicals."
The senior member of NCM made the remark after having received two complaints of conversions-the first complaint from Kerala and the other one from Delhi. Kurian described the issue as "serious" and said it could lead to communal disharmony in the state. "It was found that in most cases, the victims were brainwashed and in some cases, they were used as courier for terror activities. Many a time the victims' families refuse to come out and report the issue fearing threat from the organised conversion terror activities," he said.
In the first incident that took place in Kerala's Kozhikode, a Christian college student was allegedly raped after being made to drink juice laced with sedatives and the act was filmed by the accused who mounted pressure on the victim to get her converted to Islam. When she refused an attempt was made to abduct her from the hostel she was putting up, NCM said.
In the second case, a Malayali Christian girl from Delhi was allegedly "abducted" to a West Asian country by one Mohammad Siddiqui. The girl's family, in their complaint, said that they feared that the girl "could have been misled/cheated/brainwashed/abducted and led astray with very nefarious designs like joining an outfit such as IS or being used as a slave".
"The fears expressed by the parents are not misplaced, given the experiences in the earlier similar cases. Reports suggest that out of the 21 persons who joined the Islamic State from Kerala, five were converted from Christianity," Kurian said, in a statement. He also cited a campaign run by the Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference (KCBC)'s Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance against the "social evil".
Quoting a publication of KCBC, Kurian said, "It is shocking that around 4,000 girls have been subjected to religious conversion since 2005 (till 2012) after they fell in love.The victims are sexually harassed or have to spend the rest of their life in a pathetic condition without any freedom." Kurian also referred to a media report that relied on the KCBC's 2009 statement and said more than 2600 young Christian women were converted to Islam since 2006.