The sensational topic of love jihad has been engulfing and affecting news headlines for weeks. Now, veteran actor, Naseeruddin Shah has voiced his opinion about the same citing his own experience. He also created concerns over the divide between two particular religions in the name of love jihad. In a video interview with Karwan-e-Mohabbat India, the 70-year-old actor shared his opinions on its YouTube channel. (Recommended Read: Puja Banerjee And Kunal Verma Take Their Little Boy, Krishiv For His First Outing [Pictures Inside])
Naseeruddin Shah was barely 19 years old when he had fallen in love with Purveen, a Pakistani medical student, who was studying at Aligarh Muslim University. The couple had gotten hitched on November 1, 1969, and after ten months of their wedding, they had welcomed their daughter, Heeba. The couple had soon decided to separate because of a lot of differences. In 1975, Naseer had met Ratna Pathak for the first time. The actress was a college student back then and he was an FTII graduate. And after a long dating and live-in period together, the couple had decided to tie the knot on April 1, 1982, and had a registered wedding at Ratna’s mother’s home.
Speaking about the kerfuffle people have made out of love jihad in Uttar Pradesh, Naseer ji said, "I am really furious with the way divisions are being created, like the love jihad tamasha in UP. Firstly, the people who coined this phrase don’t know the meaning of the word jihad. I don’t think that anyone would be so stupid to actually believe that Muslims will overtake the Hindu population, it is unimaginable. For that, Muslims will have to have so many babies. So, this whole notion is unreal.”
Naseer ji believes that the term love jihad stems from the idea of stigmatising inter-faith marriages and stopping social interactions between two particular religions. He said, "They not only want to discourage interfaith marriages but also curtail social interactions between Hindus and Muslims.” Naseer ji, who is married to theatre cum film actress, Ratna Pathak Shah, said he always believed that his marriage to a Hindu woman would set a "healthy precedent". He was quoted as saying, "We have taught our children about every religion. But we have never told them that they belong to any particular religion. I always believed that these differences would slowly fade away. I believed that my marriage to a Hindu woman would set a healthy precedent. I don’t think this is wrong.” (Also Read: Bigg Boss 14: Rakhi Sawant Is Badly Missing Her Husband, Ritesh, Says, 'I See Him In Abhinav Shukla')
Naseer ji then revealed an interesting anecdote about his married life. He said that when he was about to tie the knot with Ratna Pathak Shah, his mother had asked if he would want his to-be-wife to convert to his religion. He had said no to his mom. He further said that even though his mother was uneducated and was brought up in an orthodox household, she was completely against the idea of changing one's religion. He said, "My mother who was uneducated, brought up in an orthodox household, prayed five times a day, observed Roza all her life, went for the Haj pilgrimage, she said, 'The things that have been taught to you in your childhood how can that change? It is not right to change one’s religion'." The critically-acclaimed actor said that it saddens him to see the harassment young couples face these days in the name of love jihad.
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Soon after the interview was aired online, Naseer ji's statements instigated an outrage on social media. In another interview, Shah said he failed to understand the reason behind such an adverse reaction to his statements. In his words, "All I had said was that the death of a cow had taken precedence over the death of a person and it makes me very angry. This was misinterpreted that I was expressing fear, when in fact I never used the word fear." (Don't Miss: Karanvir Bohra And Teejay Sidhu Celebrate Their Newborn Daughter, Snowflake's First Month Birthday)
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