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

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A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2021) | Viewed by 83929

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Iselin Frydenlund

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Guest Editor

Department of Religious Studies, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, 0302 Oslo, Norway
Interests: Buddhism and its relations to politics; nationalism and violence; Buddhism and law; Buddhist–Muslim relations; Islamophobia

Dr. Eviane Leidig

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Majorstuen, 0302 Oslo, Norway
Interests: Hindu nationalism; Islamophobia; gender; social media

Special Issue Information

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

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

love jihad
sexual jihad
demographic jihad
reproductive politics
the “Great Replacement”
Islamophobia
globalization
nativism
interreligious marriages
anti-Muslim nationalism
Hindu nationalism/Hindutva
Buddhist nationalism
white nationalism
Muslim minorities

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Editorial

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12 pages, 279 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

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

by Iselin Frydenlund and Eviane Leidig

Religions 2022, 13(3), 201; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13030201 - 25 Feb 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5826

Abstract

The Introduction to this Special Issue on ‘“Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male’ provides a theoretical overview and suggests an analytical lens for how to understand “Love Jihad” and related notions of Islamization through marriage, sexuality, and reproduction. We define “Love Jihad” as the notion that Muslim men intentionally and strategically allure and entrap non-Muslim women with the intent to marry and convert them to Islam as part of an Islamization project. We suggest a two-fold understanding of the concept of “Love Jihad”. First, the concept needs to be understood as a globalizing trope, originating from India and spreading to a wide range of cultural and national contexts across the world. Second, we propose to understand the specific term “love jihad” beyond its referential specificity, and thereby broadening it into 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”). We therefore include in our analysis related notions such as Islamic womb fare, “grooming”, “The Great Replacement”, and “unethical conversion” in marriage where they relate to flows of gendered nationalist imaginaries of the Muslim “Other”. The aim of this Introduction—as well as the Special Issue—is 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. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue “Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

18 pages, 324 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Love Jihad in Contemporary Art in Norway

by Ragnhild Johnsrud Zorgati

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1106; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121106 - 15 Dec 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3362

Abstract

This article explores the concept of ‘love jihad’ and the love jihad discourse in a Scandinavian setting, with a particular emphasis on contemporary works of art and popular culture in Norway. Arguing that ‘love jihad’ may be understood as part of a larger cluster of meaning related to fear of love across religious and cultural boundaries, and of losing ‘our women’ to ‘foreign men’, the article demonstrates that the love-jihad discourse and its related tropes exist in the Norwegian public sphere. It is directly articulated in far-right blogs and Facebook groups and indirectly present in the works of art and popular culture that this article explores. Indeed, read intertextually and in light of recent research in sociology and media studies about Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric on the Internet, works such as Disgraced, Heisann Montebello, SAS plus/SAS pussy, and Norskish demonstrate—through challenging, mocking or discussing the love-jihad discourse—that ‘love jihad’ has echoes in contemporary Norway. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue “Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male)

15 pages, 2102 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Terrorist and the Girl Next Door: Love Jihad in French Femonationalist Nonfiction

by Catherine Tebaldi

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1090; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121090 - 10 Dec 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4303

Abstract

This paper explores the theme of Love Jihad in “true sex crime” novels, French mass-market paperbacks where a journalist or author recounts the temoignage of women who suffered sexual violence at the hands of Muslim men. Semiotic analysis of visual and textual representations shows a melodramatic triangle of female victims, Muslim male perpetrators, and heroic readers. These stories reflect, dramatize, and sexualize broader social constructions of the monstrous Muslim; from Far-Right conspiracies of The Great Replacement to femonationalist debates about veils and republican values. In the final section, the paper explores how visual and verbal tropes from these popular discourses reappear in political speech and media from the National Rally. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue “Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male)

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18 pages, 412 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Jihad.cz: Interpreting Jihad, Sexual Jihad and Demographic Jihad in the Czech Anti-Islamic Milieu

by Tadeáš Vala

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1086; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121086 - 09 Dec 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3617

Abstract

In the last 10 years, we have seen an increased frequency of fear and criticism of Islam and Muslims in the Czech media scene. Even though the percentage of Muslims in the Czech Republic is tiny (approx. estimate is 0.2%), there are active groups and movements in the country that seek to stop the spread of Islam in the Czech Republic, and the discussion of threats from Muslims routinely permeates political statements. A very common argumentation of Czech anti-Islamic claims uses the presentation of jihad as evidence of the danger that threatens the Western world from Muslims. The most widespread understanding of this phenomenon still presents jihad as armed violence against non-Muslims, which is supposed to be clear evidence of the warlike and violent nature of Islam. However, in the Czech-language milieu in recent years, there have also been descriptions of other forms of so-called “creeping” or “stealth” jihad. The article focused on the analysis of the concepts of “population jihad” or “demographic jihad”, violent “sexual jihad”, “womb jihad” or “wombfare”, and the so-called “great replacement” as presented on websites, radio, and social networks by the authors of the Czech-language anti-Islamic milieu. The present text thus illustrated the use of interpretations of sexual and demographic jihad to rationalize the fear and hatred of Muslims and Islam in the Czech Republic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue “Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male)

15 pages, 265 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“Love Jihad”, “Forced” Conversion Narratives, and Interfaith Marriage in the Sikh Diaspora

by Katy Pal Sian

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1085; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121085 - 09 Dec 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3081

Abstract

This paper sets out to critically examine the “forced” conversion narrative circulating across the Sikh diaspora. The “forced” conversion narrative tells the story of Muslim men allegedly deceiving and tricking “vulnerable” Sikh females into Islam. The paper explores the parallels between the “forced” conversion narrative and the discourse on “love jihad” propagated by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as well as drawing out its particularities within the Sikh community. The paper is informed by new empirical data generated by a series of qualitative interviews with Sikhs in the UK, US, and Canada, and captures the complexities and nuances of my respondents in their interpretations of, and challenges to, the “forced” conversions narrative. The paper adopts a decolonial Sikh studies theoretical framework to critically unpack the logics of the discourse. In doing so, it reveals a wider politics at play, centred upon the regulation of Sikh female bodies, fears of the preservation of community, and wider anxieties around interfaith marriage. These aspects come together to display Sikh Islamophobia, whereby the figure of the “predatory” Muslim male is represented as an existential threat to Sikh being. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue “Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male)

20 pages, 3828 KiB

Open AccessArticle

From Love Jihad to Grooming Gangs: Tracing Flows of the Hypersexual Muslim Male through Far-Right Female Influencers

by Eviane Leidig

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1083; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121083 - 09 Dec 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 11196

Abstract

This article traces the transnational flows of constructions of the hypersexualized Muslim male through a comparative analysis of love jihad in India and the specter of grooming gangs in the UK. While the former is conceived as an act of seduction and conversion, and the latter through violent rape imaginaries, foregrounding both of these narratives are sexual, gender, and family dynamics that are integral to the fear of demographic change. Building upon these narratives, this study analyzes how influential women in Hindu nationalist and European/North American far-right milieus circulate images, videos, and discourses on social media that depict Muslim men as predatory and violent, targeting Hindu and white girls, respectively. By positioning themselves as the daughters, wives, and mothers of the nation, these far-right female influencers invoke a sense of reproductive urgency, as well as advance claims of the perceived threat of, and safety from, hypersexualized Muslim men. This article illustrates how local ideological narratives of Muslim sexuality are embedded into global Islamophobic tropes of gendered nationalist imaginaries. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue “Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male)

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21 pages, 327 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Protecting Buddhist Women from Muslim Men: “Love Jihad” and the Rise of Islamophobia in Myanmar

by Iselin Frydenlund

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1082; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121082 - 08 Dec 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5369

Abstract

Buddhist protectionism in contemporary Myanmar revolves around fears of the decline of Buddhism and deracination of the amyo (group/“race”). Buddhist protectionists and Burmese nationalists have declared Islam and Muslims the greatest threat to race and religion, and Myanmar has witnessed widespread distribution of anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim content, as well as massive violence against Muslim minority communities, the Rohingya in particular. The Indian neologism “Love Jihad” has scarce reference in contemporary Burmese Buddhist discourses, but, importantly, the tropes of aggressive male Muslim sexuality and (forced) conversion through marriage (“love jihad”) have been one of the core issues in Buddhist protectionism in Myanmar. The article shows that such tropes of the threatening foreign male have strong historical legacies in Myanmar, going back to colonial Burma when Burmese concerns over Indian male immigrant workers resulted in both anti-Indian violence and anti-miscegenation laws. Importantly, however, compared to colonial Indophobia and military era xenophobic nationalism, contemporary constructions are informed by new political realities and global forces, which have changed Buddhist protectionist imaginaries of gender and sexuality in important ways. Building on Sara R. Farris’ concept of “femonationalism”, and Rogers Brubaker’s concept of civilizationism, the article shows how Global Islamophobia, as well as global discourses on women’s rights and religious freedom, have informed Buddhist protectionism beyond ethnonationalism in the traditional sense. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue “Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male)

16 pages, 315 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Securitization of Love Jihad

by Andrea Malji and Syed Tahseen Raza

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1074; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121074 - 03 Dec 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 14300

Abstract

The concept of ‘love jihad’ has typically been studied within the context of feminism, nationalism, or religion. However, a singular approach fails to recognize the interconnected impact that each of these has on the development of India’s security policies. This article analyzes how the archetype of the dangerous Muslim male is used to shape India’s securitization strategies. This paper argues that these policies reflect Hindu paranoia of decreasing dominance vis à vis Muslims. This will be explored within three contexts. First, it explores how the perceived threat of an increasing Muslim population shapes state-level and national policies. Second, it explores how the threat of love jihad has shaped India’s policies with its borders and neighboring countries. Third, it examines the international impact of the securitization of love jihad. This paper will demonstrate that at the foundation of these policies is a fear of Muslims strategizing to increase their population via intermarriage and migration. The perceived threat of love jihad has been increasingly utilized as a Hindutva campaign tactic to promote fear and create support for increased securitization policies both domestically and internationally. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue “Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male)

18 pages, 298 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Love Jihad and the Governance of Gender and Intimacy in Hindu Nationalist Statecraft

by Kenneth Bo Nielsen and Alf Gunvald Nilsen

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1068; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121068 - 02 Dec 2021

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 6113

Abstract

What role does the Islamophobic theory of “love jihad” play in the politics of Hindu nationalist statecraft—the legal codification of Hindu nationalist ideology—in India today? In this article, we address this question through a critical analysis of how the idea of “love jihad” relate to both (a) a conservative politics of governing gender and intimacy in which women are constituted as subjects of protection and (b) an authoritarian populism grounded in a foundational opposition between true Indians and their anti-national enemies within. The article begins by exploring how “love jihad” has transformed from an idea that was used to legitimize extra-legal violence by Hindu nationalist vigilantes to the status of law, with a particular focus on the BJP-ruled state of Uttar Pradesh. We then situate the “love jihad” laws in relation to a regime of gender governance that constitutes women as subjects of protection - and specifically protection by state and nation—and discuss how this resonates with a pervasive patriarchal common sense in Indian society. Finally, we show how “love jihad” laws and the wider conservative politics of gender and intimacy within which it is embedded feeds into the authoritarian politics of the Modi regime, in which Muslims are consistently portrayed as enemies of the Indian nation, and reflect on what this entails for the country’s secular political order. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue “Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male)

23 pages, 387 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sound Biting Conspiracy: From India with “Love Jihad”

by Kathinka Frøystad

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1064; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121064 - 01 Dec 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 6475

Abstract

Since 2013, India has seen a remarkable growth of a conspiracy theory known as “love jihad”, which holds that Muslim men conspire to lure Hindu women for marriage to alter India’s religious demography as part of a political takeover strategy. While earlier scholarship on “love jihad” emphasizes the Hindu nationalist propagation of this conspiracy theory, this article pays equal attention to its appeal among conservative Hindus. Making its point of departure in the generative effects of speech, it argues that the “love jihad” neologism performs two logical operations simultaneously. Firstly, it fuses the long-standing Hindu anxiety about daughters marrying against their parents’ will, with the equally long-standing anxiety about unfavorable religious demographic trends. Secondly, it attributes a sinister political takeover intent to every Muslim man who casts his eyes on a young Hindu woman. To bring out these points, this article pays equal empirical attention to marriage and kinship practices as to the genealogy of, and forerunners to, the “love jihad” neologism, and develops the concept of “sound biting” to bring out its meaning-making effect. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue “Love Jihad”: Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male)

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