On April 26, 2023, the eagerly anticipated trailer for Sudipto Sen’s movie “The Kerala Story” was unveiled. The movie is based on the genuine accounts of Hindu and Christian females from Kerala who were tricked into engaging in love jihad before being flown to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. On May 5, 2023, today the movie was made available in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. Liberals and Islamists fiercely criticised the movie on social media and in the news media even before it was released. The majority of them were shown in denial mode, which was a denial of the film’s core concept. Initially, it was claimed that no one from Kerala joined ISIS. There were concerns regarding the figures when pertinent incidents and reports were mentioned. More than 32000 people, according to the film’s creators, were victims of forced conversions. The liberals, on the other hand, provided numerous sources to support their allegation that there were just a few hundred, as though a smaller number would make the crime of recruiting terrorists less serious. Some will like the movie, some will hate the movie and most will have their opinion crawling all over the place without watching it. But the fact remains, Kerala is the capital for conversions in India.
Although the movie depicts conversion as a severe problem in Kerala, petitions have also been brought before the top court complaining that the movie portrays the entire Muslim community negatively. However, the director asserts that what is depicted in the movie is a misuse of religion to support the global terrorist group that uses the name of Islam to carry out its operations. In light of this, it is important to consider the reality check and consider just how pervasive the issue of forced conversion and ISIS recruitment is in God’s own country. To suggest that there is love jihad would not be an exaggeration; it essentially began in Kerala alone. There is plenty of evidence in the public domain to support the claim that Muslim teenagers recruit Christian girls as well as Hindu girls at the direction of their religious lecturers.
These girls are married and converted to Islam before being sent to Middle Eastern nations like Iraq and Syria, where they are either utilised as sex slaves or as terrorists. Additionally, the claimed number of victims is supported by evidence. The experiences and accounts of the real-life victims of the story, which is now a movie, are sufficiently authentic to prove that Kerala is dealing with a problem of forced Islamic conversions and love jihad, which makes it a prime location for the recruitment of the dreaded terrorist group. In Kerala, ISIS involvement was first discovered in 2013. ISIS started a presence in Kerala as early as 2014, with educational materials promoting religious conversions and recruiting professionals to join its forces in Afghanistan and Syria. Many men and women from Kerala are rumoured to have recently joined the ISKP (Islamic State of Khorasan Province). The Indian state of Kerala is home to a sizable number of ISIS terrorists, the United Nations warned in its 2020 terrorism assessment. Kerala has largely become a hotspot for ISIS recruiting because of the outlawed terrorist group Popular Front of India (PFI). The PFI terrorists were the driving force behind the radicalization of Muslim youngsters and the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam. This was also included in a report that the National Investigation Agency submitted in September 2022 to a court in Kochi.
As a result, Kerala has seen a significant increase in conversions from 2008–2009. ISIS received the converted girls and their Muslim husbands. Only after the girls were initially detained and then examined in Afghanistan in 2016 did the awful tales of the females come to light. The instance of the four girls who were part of the 21-person group that joined ISIS in 2016 along with their spouses was one of the most talked-about examples of love jihad.
Sonia Sebastian alias Ayisha, Merrin Jacob alias Mariyam, Nimisha alias Fathima Isa, and Raffaela were named as the four girls. The only Hindu among these four girls was Nimisha. Christians made up the other three. These four girls were enticed and tricked into accepting Islam. Together with a group of 21 men and women from Kerala, they left India in 2016 to join the ISKP (Islamic State of Khorasan Province), the Khorasan branch of ISIS, in Afghanistan. They were first transported to Iran, from where they travelled on foot into Afghanistan. Kasargod in Kerala is where Sonia Sebastian, as Ayisha, is from. On May 31, 2016, she and her spouse Abdul Rashid Abdulla flew out of India. Throughout the final days of Ramadan in Padanna and Kasaragod, the couple taught covert classes endorsing IS and jihad. Sebastian holds a degree in engineering.
Merrin Jacob, also known as Mariyam, was wed to Palakkad inhabitant Bestin Vincent. In 2016, the pair fled to Afghanistan and now resides there in an IS-controlled area. The couple, who were Christians, converted to Islam, and Vincent adopted the name Yahya. Later, Vincent died in Afghanistan. Similarly, Bexon, the brother of Vincent, and his wife Nimisha alias Fatima fled to Afghanistan after converting to Islam. Raffaela was wed to Kasargod-born doctor Ijas Kallukettiya Purayil, who was 37 years old.
Merrin Jacob Pallath, then 22 years old, used to work for IBM in Mumbai. She reconnected with Bestin Vincent, a buddy from her high school days, while she was living in Mumbai. Bestin Vincent changed his religion to Islam and adopted the name Yahya. The brother of this Bestin Vincent, Bexin Vincent, likewise converted to Islam and adopted the name, Esa. These two teenagers were allegedly radicalised by Arshi Qureshi, a manager at the Islamic Research Foundation in Mumbai. This case has been thoroughly documented by the National Investigation Agency.
Zakir Naik, a fugitive and notorious Islamic preacher who now resides in Malaysia and has been outlawed since 2016 due to worries about the radicalization of young people, created the organisation. According to a report, Merrin Jacob’s mother said that her daughter and the other members of the group who travelled to Afghanistan were coerced into joining. With the promise of heaven for Muslims, they were duped. When Bestin paid her a visit in Bombay, he handed her a Quran. He advised her to study this, disregard everything she had been taught, and convert to Islam. Merrin was a devoted and devout youngster from the beginning.
A few months after she first met Yahiya, Mariyam quit her work, moved to Ernakulam, converted to Islam, and wed Yahiya. Her friend Nimisha converted to Islam about the same time, took the name Fatima, and wed Esa. Nimisha’s mother Bindu Sampath recalled their last encounter: “On April 16, 2016; Nimisha visited their house and told us they were heading to Sri Lanka to pursue a carpet company with the money Bexin’s father provided them.
She was seven months pregnant and wearing a burqa. After two weeks, Nimisha stopped writing her mother letters, and she started to worry that something was very wrong. On May 8, she attempted to notify the police that her kid might be in danger, but they disregarded her situation, she claimed. Yahya and Esa’s parents informed Nimisha’s mother that Yahya and Esa were in Afghanistan because they had been receiving text messages from their sons. The parents were shocked to find their kids’ faces among those of 21 ISIS terrorist gang members when they saw the news that night.
It is noteworthy that Nimisha’s brother is a member of the military. Bindu Sampath, her mother, said, “I realised that day that I had to put my feelings aside and begin the fight to bring my daughter back. I used to be known as the mother of an Indian major; now I’m known as the mother of an ISIS terrorist. My other child is in the military. You may be able to guess how I must feel.
Abdul Rashid seduced Sonia Sebastian, who later converted her to Ayisha. Additionally, in May 2016, the two were among the first 21 individuals to leave Kerala and join ISIS. Abdul Rashid allegedly played a crucial role in radicalising and enlisting gang members in Kerala, according to the NIA investigation. In Kasargod, Abdul Rashid used to instruct potential ISIS members. He discussed jihad and ISIS ideologies. These members received videos promoting the brutality and philosophy of ISIS. Rashid had communicated with ISIS terrorists in Syria on the dark web because he intended to join them there.
After Bestin Vincent alias Yahya was killed while working for ISIS, Abdul Rashid was married to Sonia Sebastian alias Ayisha. Mariyam later wed Abdul Rashid. In 2019, after Abdul Rashid was slain, the group’s entire female, child, and male members surrendered and were detained by Afghan police. The Kerala conversion scam was quite active well before Sonia Sebastian married Abdul Rashid in 2011 and converted to Islam. After becoming Muslims, terrorist material was supplied to them via text, audio, and video. Additionally, local preachers would be responsible for explaining various ideas to them. They were informed that since India is a country full of Kafirs, it is the responsibility of every Muslim to join the army fighting to create a Caliphate. If they die in a terrorist attack, they were guaranteed paradise and all of its extra benefits. Additionally, they were informed that Khorasan, which roughly translates to include parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, is governed by Islam. They were informed that Sharia law applied and that, rather than residing in a nation of Kafirs, they might live better lives there.
These women lacked clarity about their opinions on Islamist ideology and ISIS even after their detention in 2019. All they said was that they were sorry and grieved for the treachery they had suffered at the hands of the Caliphate and Sharia law. They claimed that while they were aware that there might be some violence, they did not anticipate it to be this deadly. None of the women was heard complaining that they made a grave error in leaving their religion and converting to Islam in the first place, followed by another grave error in becoming a terrorist and an enemy of the state and humanity. Even after losing their husbands and companions—some died and some went missing. In a documentary released by StarNews Global in 2019 are the in-depth accounts of their testimony.
Mariyam regretted coming to Afghanistan deeply but did not regret her decision to become a Muslim. When asked about her future, Fatima, who was Nimisha before her conversion, answered that she could not question Allah’s decision and left it to his will. Indirectly supporting her choice was Sonia Sebastian’s claim that she simply did as her husband instructed since she believed it to be in her best interests. Engineer Sonia Sebastian is. When questioned about her foolish choices and what advice she would give the hopefuls, all she could say was that what had been promised had not materialised. She did not express loud disapproval of the entire situation she found herself in.
Raffaela appeared to be affected by Islamist terror similarly since she did not publicly denounce the group’s wrongdoing. These women resisted labelling the actions carried out by the ISIS branch in Khorasan as wrong, even as they condemned them. However, they all shared a certain trait. They desired to visit India. They claimed to come from this nation, which they had previously referred to as the “land of the Kafirs.” According to the NIA findings, it is never safe to maintain these brainwashed ISIS terrorists in society because they might surreptitiously keep up with the ideology they are spoon-fed. Despite several requests and pleas from the ISIS operatives and their parents and family members, the Indian government has decided not to permit them to return to the nation in light of this threat. Practically speaking, what these Keralite ladies have received is nothing more than the fatal delusion of the Islamic State, which they have been taught to believe in.
No matter how much the liberals deny it, conversion is a horror that needs to be understood. It is the responsibility of the parents to educate their children about the history, reality and possibilities that they need to know about. Secularism does not mean not knowing your roots and disrespecting your foundation. While we teach our children to respect others, we should not forget to teach them to respect themselves and their legacy.
