Representation Image
A 45-year-old Muslim man, identified as Imraj Ansari was killed in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district, allegedly due to his being in a relationship with a woman from another community. The incident occurred in Dhawaiya village in Mahuatand.
The Telegraph published a PTI report that says that according to the police, some villagers were opposed to the relationship. Superintendent of Police Chandan Kumar Jha told PTI, “The unhappy villagers murdered him around 8 pm on Thursday.”
Eleven people have been arrested in connection with the case so far, and police forces have been deployed in the village to avert a law-and-order problem due to fears of outbreak of communal violence. An investigation is underway, but police are tight-lipped about the details at present given the sensitive nature of the crime.
Often, interfaith relationships, particularly those between Muslim men and Hindu women, are frowned upon in places where tradition trumps every other aspect of life. These are pejoratively dubbed as “Love Jihad”, as the Muslim man in the relationship is invariably accused of taking advantage of the non-Muslim woman. This, apart from being an extremely offensive and communal mindset, is also insulting to women as it is presumed that they have no agency, or that an adult woman is not capable of making decisions about her personal life.
SabrangIndia’s sister organisation CJP had moved a petition before the Supreme Court challenging laws enacted by various states to curtail religious conversion. CJP’s petition opposed these un-constitutional, anti-minority and misogynistic beliefs, by challenging laws passed in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Related:
CJP’s Love Jihad amendment petition allowed by SC
Marry Hindu men to avoid triple talaq: Suresh Chavhanke’s advice to Muslim women
No interfaith nikah sans parents’ consent: MP’s Ulama Board’s latest diktat