The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind on May 2 moved the Supreme Court to stop the release of the movie The Kerala Story on Friday and for immediate removal of its online trailer, saying the film demonises the entire Muslim community, particularly Muslim youth, with a “malicious propaganda” that 32,000 girls in Kerala were lured through ‘love jihad’ and trafficked to West Asia to join the ISIS.
Earlier in the day, advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for journalist, Qurban Ali, made an urgent mentioning before a Bench led by Justice K.M. Joseph with regard to the film. Mr. Pasha said the movie amounted to hate speech and sought an intervention in an already existing case before Justice Joseph’s Bench concerning hate speech. However, the Bench said the issue concerned a film and advised Mr. Pasha to file a separate petition either in the Supreme Court or the Kerala High Court. Mr. Pasha filed a separate petition in the top court later in the day against the release of the film.
The Jamiat petition, filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool, said the organisation had directly approached the Supreme Court as the movie was scheduled for release in four languages — Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu — and would have an adverse impact across the country.
‘Aimed at spreading hatred’
“The movie is clearly aimed at spreading hatred and enmity between different sections of society in India. The message the movie imparts is that non-Muslim young women are being lured into converting to Islam by their classmates and subsequently, trafficked to West Asia where they are forced to join terrorist organisations. The movie gives the impression that apart from extremist clerics who radicalise people, ordinary Muslim youngsters, their classmates, also play an instrumental role in luring non-Muslims and radicalising them by posing as friendly and good-natured, in accordance with instructions given by extremist scholars,” the petition said.
The movie actually begins with a note that it is “inspired by true events”.
The Jamiat said public figures such as Member of Parliament John Brittas and the Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly V.D. Satheesan had already deplored the film for spreading hatred.
‘Love jihad a bogey’
The petition argued that even by the statements made by the Centre and the National Investigation Agency ‘love jihad’ was a “bogey”. It said Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy in February 2020 had stated in the Lok Sabha “there was no case of ‘love jihad’ reported by Central agencies”.
“It is hardly conceivable that the Central government would have had no knowledge if 32,000 women would have been sent to West Asia to join ISIS” .
Moreover, the NIA itself had, in 2018, concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that women in Kerala were being forced to convert to Islam.
The Jamiat referred to security affairs experts Kabir Taneja and Mohammed Sinn Sinyech, quoting from their report prepared under the aegis of the Observer Research Foundation, that the number of Indians who had joined or attempted to join ISIS by travelling to West Asia was around 180 while noting that as per the Union Home Ministry, it was 155.
“The number of those who actually joined is reportedly 66. It is relevant to mention that the government of India’s figures show that the movie seeks to spread malicious propaganda to provoke different sections of society by exaggerating the number of persons who joined ISIS in India. The difference between 60, 180/155 and 32,000 is too large to be ignored,” the petition said.
Further, an investigation by the State Police carried out in 2009 revealed that there was no evidence of ‘love jihad’ in Kerala.
Noting that a first information report had already been registered in respect to the film in Kerala, the petition referred to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s statement that there was “no evidence of forced conversions in the State and the fears about ‘love jihad’ were baseless”.
