“Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue explores so-called “love jihad”, here defined as the notion that Muslim men strategically allure and entrap non-Muslim women with the intent to marry and convert them to Islam as part of an Islamization project. The aim of the Special Issue is two-fold. First, it explores the international spread of the trope “love jihad”, as well as its interpretations and usages in diverse cultural settings, welcoming discussions on “love jihad” from a wide range of cultural and national contexts from across the globe. Second, the specific term “love jihad” should not limit its conceptual expanse. We propose to use “love jihad” as an analytical concept for exploring related concepts (such as “sexual jihad” and “demographic jihad”), as well as related notions of Muslim men as sexual predators (in certain geographical settings known as “rapefugees”). Therefore, articles that discuss related concepts (not least Islamic womb fare, “grooming”, “The Great Replacement”, and “unethical conversion” in marriage) are also of interest, given that they relate to flows of gendered nationalist imaginaries of the Muslim “Other”. This Special Issue aims to contribute to the study of Islamophobia as a global phenomenon and to deepen our understanding of the gendered imaginaries of anti-Muslim nationalist formations across the world. It is part of Intersecting Flows of Islamophobia (INTERSECT) funded by the Research Council of Norway.

The Introduction to the Special Issue is written by Prof. Iselin Frydenlund (Project leader of INTERSECT) and Dr. Eviane Leidig (postdoc at INTERSECT). We prefer to receive the abstracts before 1 April 2021, and full papers before 1 August 2021. 

In particular, the main topics that this Special Issue covers are:

• The genealogy of the concept of “love jihad”;
• Analysis of related concepts such as “demographic jihad”, “sexual jihad”, and “wombfare”;
• Case studies that explore “love jihad” in a variety of contexts (across Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa);
• Constructions of Muslim hyperfertility and male sexual aggression as an instrument of “Islamization” both in the past and the present.

Besides contributions by Frydenlund and Leidig, we invite researchers to submit proposals for articles to be included in the Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Iselin Frydenlund
Dr. Eviane Leidig
Guest Editors

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