Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — The Muslim Youth League has now challenged the makers of “The Kerala Story” to prove the veracity of a contentious claim made in the film’s teaser — that “32,000 girls” from Kerala were forcibly converted and allegedly recruited to the militant outfit ISIS.
The Kerala state committee of the organisation has announced a monetary reward of Rs 1 crore if the makers produce proof that 32,000 women from Kerala had converted to Islam and migrated to Syria or Yemen, as claimed in the teaser.
In the film’s first teaser released in November last year, actor Adah Sharma who plays the protagonist in the film can be seen delivering a monologue, claiming that a deadly game is being played to convert normal girls into dreaded terrorists in Kerala. “My name was Shalini Unnikrishnan, I wanted to serve humanity by becoming a nurse. Now I am Fathima Ba. An ISIS terrorist in Afghanistan jail. I am not alone, like me there are 32,000 girls who have already been converted and buried in the desert of Syria and Yemen,” she says. The claim immediately courted controversy, but five months later, the makers are yet to provide any evidence to back the veracity of this data despite calls from several quarters to do so.
Earlier, two other concerned individuals from Kerala have also come forward with promises of monetary rewards if the film’s makers take up the challenge.
A blogger and writer Nazeer Hussain Kizhakkedath of Kerala has also offered a reward of Rs 10 lakh to anyone who can produce evidence that at least 10 women, let alone 32,000, were converted and forced to join ISIS.
“I am offering Rs 10 lakh to anyone who publishes information such as names and addresses of the women who were converted to Islam and made to become members of the Islamic State by the Muslim youth of Kerala, as is claimed in the propaganda film “The Kerala Story.” No need to produce proof for 32,000 women, just 10 are enough,” his Facebook post said.
Nazeer further noted that Merin and Nimisha — who were married to brothers Bexan Vincent and Besten Vincent — and Sonia Sebastian were the only persons reported to have joined ISIS from outside the Muslim community in Kerala. “Everyone should stop blaming a community and a state without any proof about the ‘love jihad’ case which was dismissed even by the High Court,” he added.
Inspired by Nazeer Hussain, Malayalam actor and lawyer S Shukkur also put up a Facebook post stating that he was offering Rs 11 lakh to anyone who can publish information about at least 32 Kerala women who were converted and forced to become ISIS members.
The trailer of Vipul Shah-produced and Sudipto Sen-directed “The Kerala Story” was released this week and the movie is scheduled to be released on May 5 in theatres all over the country.
