Much has been said about the love jihad phenomenon in India, but it appears that a similar pattern of crimes are happening elsewhere in the world as well.
A Syrian migrant named Abed pretended to be Adam, met a 12-year-old girl on Snapchat, and subsequently raped her, reports Swedish media. Abed had been arrested after the crime, and has been sentenced to 1 year and 2 months in prison. He will also be deported from the country.
As per reports, Abed Alrazzaq, who was a 19-year-old Syrian citizen and a migrant to Sweden, got in touch with the 12-year-old girl on Snapchat. On the platform, he had introduced himself as Adam, and arranged a meeting with the girl and a friend of hers, who was 13, in Täby Centrum in northern Greater Stockholm. The met, and then arranged to meet again a day later.
This time, Abed took the girls to the migrant accommodation where he stayed in the municipality. At the accommodation, the girls hung out with Abed’s friends. The girls got a bad feeling when the migrants started talking Arabic to each other and glancing at them. Suddenly, Abed’s friend went out to smoke and took the 12-year-old girl’s friend with him.
Abed then took the opportunity to lock the door and pull down the blinds in the bedroom they were staying in. Then he forced the girl to take off her clothes. It appears from her testimony that she has opposed it and made it clear that she is only 12 years old.
But as she tried to get out of the situation, Abed held her by the wrists. He then carried out a vaginal rape in the room. The girl testified that Abed’s phone rang several times during the assault.
The girl later went home, and told her parents what had happened, because she feared she would get pregnant when the condom that Abed used had broken. She recounted how Abed had allegedly threatened her with warnings not to talk to either her parents or the police because she will then be “hit hard”. Abed is said to have wanted sex and swore at his “mother’s death” to reinforce how much he wanted. Then he made it clear to the 12-year-old girl that he was doing what he wanted.
After the girl’s parents contacted the police, Abed was arrested and admitted to having sex but claimed it was “voluntary”. Furthermore, Abed stated that he did not know her age, which both girls believe he did. It was also learnt that after arriving in Sweden in 2017, Abed had already been sentenced for robbery and assault to a suspended sentence with community service for 160 hours, and in the same year, was also charged with another assault but where the evidence was not considered sufficient for a conviction. Abed has now been sentenced to 14 months in prison.
This is a story that has echoes in India — in India, there are hundreds of reports of men of a particular religion hiding their identities and pretending to be from a different faith to befriend women, often with grave consequences. Over the last few weeks, a women in Bhopal has committed suicide blaming one Aadil Khan, who’d introduced himself to her as Bablu; in Delhi, a Shoyab Khan had pretended to be SK Sinha and kidnapped a minor; a woman marrying at a court in Aligarh had told reporters that her groom had introduced himself had Sonu and had later turned out to be Muslim, and in Delhi, one Dildar Qureshi had pretended to be Rahul and run away with a 13-year old. With an Abed now having pretended to be Adam and raped a 12-year-old in Sweden, it would appear that the love jihad phenomenon exists well beyond India’s borders.
