The wild claim of 32,000 women joining ISIS from Kerala has been fact-checked by Altnews. It found the claim to be baseless. Film director Sudipto Sen refused to share the report of the number with Altnews saying that he would do so after the movie’s release
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — ‘The Kerala Story’, an Islamophobic movie which is set for release ahead of the Karnataka elections on 5 May, is under fire for peddling a ‘Love Jihad’ conspiracy theory and distorting facts on conversions.
The trailer of the movie, directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Shah, claimed that thousands of Hindu and Christian women were converted and trafficked to a Muslim country. It showed some Islamic preachers urging young Muslims to lure non-Muslim girls and hand them over to them for a mission. “If there is a need, impregnate them,” it showed a bearded man, looking like an Islamic preacher, as saying.
In the trailer, Adah Sharma, the actress in the lead character, claimed that thousands of women were converted after being trapped. In the teaser, the movie claimed that 32,000 women were converted and were forced to join terror outfits like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The wild claim of 32,000 women joining ISIS from Kerala has been fact-checked by Altnews. It found the claim to be baseless. Film director Sen refused to share the report of the number with Altnews saying that he would do so after the movie’s release.
Ahead of the movie’s release, it has come in for severe criticism with calls to prove the levelled allegations. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has already slammed the movie calling it a ‘Sangh’s’ lie factory. He was referring to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the chief patron of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Propaganda films and their otherisation of Muslims should be viewed in the context of various efforts made by the Sangh Parivar to gain an advantage in electoral politics in Kerala. Their usual tactics do not work in Kerala, so they are trying to spread their politics of division through the film based on fake stories,” Pinarayi said.
Kerala unit of Congress has demanded that the controversial movie should not be allowed to be screened.
“This is not a question of freedom of expression, but part of the Sangh Parivar’s attempt to create communalism and division in the society by putting the minority communities under a shadow. The trailer communicates the movie’s theme. What director Sudipto Sen had told the media about the content of the movie is there before the society. It is clear that the movie is intended to insult and defame Kerala at the international level. This is part of the agenda to grow communalism, the seeds of which were sown by (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. Kerala will unitedly oppose the deliberate move to grow religious enmity,” said state opposition leader V.D. Satheesan.
Senior Congress leader and former union minister, Shashi, Tharoor tweeted: “It may be *your* Kerala story. It is not *our* Kerala story”.
In another tweet, Tharoor also shared the poster issued by Muslim Youth League announcing a Rs 1 crore reward to anyone who can prove that 32,000 women were converted and taken to Syria.
“Prove the allegations that 32,000 Keralites converted and fled to Syria. Take up the challenge and submit the evidence,” reads the poster.
“Will they be up to the challenge or is there simply no proof because none exists,” asked Tharoor.
Nazeer Hussain, a Keralite Muslim, also announced an award of Rs 10 lakh to anyone who can provide the name and address of only 10 women who were converted and inducted into the terror outfit.
Lawyer and actor C. Shukkur also announced an award of Rs 11 lakh to provide proof of 32 women who converted and joined the IS.
Skukkur, in a Facebook post, said: “I am offering 11 lakh rupees to those who publish information such as names and addresses of women who were converted to Islam and became members of the Islamic State by Muslim youth of Kerala. No need to produce proof for 32,000 women, just 32 is enough.”
Meanwhile, the Students Federation of India (SFI) unit at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has called for a protest on Tuesday against the movie.
“SFI-JNU unit condemns and vociferously resists the screening of this propaganda movie which will tarnish the fabric of secular ethos,” said SFI.
The criticism of the movie has not been confined to India alone. Khaled Almaeena, former editor-in-chief of Saudi newspapers, Arab News and Saudi Gazette, said fake news was on the rise in India at an alarming rate. “Mainstream media adopts and dishes it out and the result is further division in society, murder and mayhem.
“Sane voices should counter such acts… But who is going to bell the cat?” he responded to Tharoor’s tweet.
