Love jihad conspiracy theory
Love jihad (or Romeo jihad) is an Islamophobic conspiracy theory promoted by Hindutva activists that aims to misrepresent consensual marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men to be a part of broader agenda of initiating religious conversions into Islam. The conspiracy theory purports that Muslim men target Hindu women for conversion to Islam by means such as seduction, feigning love, deception, kidnapping, and marriage, as part of a broader demographic "war" by Muslims against India, and an organised international conspiracy, for domination through demographic growth and replacement. The conspiracy theory relies on disinformation and is noted for its similarities to other historic hate campaigns as well as contemporary white nationalist conspiracy theories and Western Islamophobia. It features Orientalist portrayals of Muslims as barbaric and hypersexual, and carries the paternalistic and patriarchal notions that Hindu women are passive and victimised, while "any possibility of women exercising their legitimate right to love and their right to choice is ignored".
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