Facebook users in India target Hindu-Muslim couples, promote extremism and hate speech
A fear of ‘love jihad’ – that Muslim men seduce Hindu women to convert them – is fomenting on social-media platforms, with activists using them to incite violence and spread anti-Muslim sentiment
The 21-year-old Hindu college student was having a quiet breakfast with her mother when her phone pinged with a terrifying message. Her name was on a hit list.
She and her Muslim boyfriend had been targeted publicly on Facebook along with about 100 other interfaith couples – each of them a Muslim man and their Hindu girlfriend. She immediately called her boyfriend to warn him.
The Facebook post included instructions: “This is a list of girls who have become victims of love jihad. We urge all Hindu lions to find and hunt down all the men mentioned here.” At least two followers heeded the call.
The phrase “love jihad” is meant to inflame dark fears that Muslim men who woo Hindu women might be trying to convert them to Islam – a prejudice that the Hindu right has tried to stoke for nearly a decade. But use of the term has spread on social media with the rise of the Hindu nationalist party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a time when religious hatred is growing on Facebook in India, its largest market.
Facebook is facing criticism that hate speech spread on the platform has fuelled ethnic and religious violence in Asia, particularly in places such as Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
