Muslim religious leaders and scholars have dubbed as "false propaganda" the issue of 'love jihad' raised by BJP and other right wing outfits, saying that Islam does not allow forced conversions.
Taking strong exception to the campaign by saffron outfits on the issue, they stressed it was only an attempt to gain political mileage and the entire community "cannot be put in the dock" over a few incidents.
"Jihad is the movement launched for some good cause and anything such as love jihad is both unIslamic and condemnable," member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangimahli told PTI.
'Love jihad' is a term coined by some Hindu groups for alleged efforts to get non-Muslim girls to convert to Islam through love affairs. The issue had come up during the state BJP's working committee meeting in Mathura this weekend but was dropped from the resolution at the last minute following allegations that the party was out to fan communalism.
Farangimahli and other scholars and religious leaders stressed that forced conversion are not acceptable in the eyes of Islam.
"There is no no movement such as love jihad being carried out by Muslims..., there had been a couple of incidents of conversion for marriage but the entire community cannot be put in the dock over them.... love jihad is a wrong propaganda. We take it that this so called campaign is only to gain political mileage which would also weaken communal brotherhood in the country," Farangimahali said.
"We are against a Muslim girl or boy forcing a person of any other religion to convert for marriage .. this leads to negativity in marriage", he said. Farangimahli's contentions also find support in the fatwas issued from time to time by the renowned Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband.
In separate fatwas issued on March 8, 2012 and March 22, 2012 to queries by different people, Deoband has said that embracing Islam only for marriage was wrong and it is better not to enter into such a matrimony.
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