India: A Muslim and a Hindu thought they could be a couple. Then came the ‘love jihad’ hit list.

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[U]se of the term ['love jihjad'] has spread on social media with the rise of the Hindu nationalist party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a time when religious hatred is growing on Facebook in India, its largest market.

(Photo: Gowen/The Washington Post) A WhatsApp image warns against
'love jihad' in India

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Washington Post
By Annie Gowen | April 26, 2017

KOLKATA, India — The 21-year-old Hindu college student was having a quiet breakfast with her mother when her phone pinged with a terrifying message. Her name was on a hit list.

She and her Muslim boyfriend had been targeted publicly on Facebook along with about 100 interfaith couples — each of them Muslim men and their Hindu girlfriends. She immediately called her boyfriend to warn him.

The Facebook post included instructions: “This is a list of girls who have become victims of love jihad. We urge all Hindu lions to find and hunt down all the men mentioned here.” At least two followers heeded the call.


A WhatsApp message on the phone of a Hindu activist in India’s eastern city of Kolkata warns of “love jihad” — the fear that Muslim men will seduce Hindu women to convert them to Islam. (Annie Gowen/The Washington Post)

The phrase “love jihad” is meant to inflame dark fears that Muslim men who woo Hindu women might be trying to convert them to Islam — a prejudice that the Hindu right has tried to stoke for nearly a decade. But use of the term has spread on social media with the rise of the Hindu nationalist party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a time when religious hatred is growing on Facebook in India, its largest market. [more ...]



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