“This whole life is a test... I had to break my mother’s heart, my father’s heart… But what matters most is Allah”This is part of a 12-minute speech by Ayesha, available on YouTube with the title “A Christian woman accepts Islam”. The visual is blurred but the speaker, clad in a burqa, delivers the testimony convincingly and in fluent English.This is just one of a series of videos of Malayali women who have converted from Christianity and Hinduism to Islam. But Ayesha’s case is different. Born Sonia Sebastian to a family of Roman Catholics, she is an MBA from Christ University in Bengaluru . Ayesha is also one of the 21 people from Kerala whose mysterious, simultaneous disappearance has come under the scanner of various intelligence agencies. While none of them has so far revealed where they are, there is wide speculation that they are somewhere in the vast swathes of West Asia controlled by the global terror outfit called the Islamic State (IS).The news of the mass departure broke on July 8, when the families of a few of them from Kasaragod in north Kerala lodged a complaint with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that their wards had been missing for over a month, with a couple of them having received messages to the effect that they were “in an Islamic land and happy”. Almost immediately, rumours started circulating that they had left to join the IS. In the three weeks since, there is no conclusive evidence but questions remain in the minds of family members and society at large.One, perhaps, is fuelled by the background and upbringing of most of those who have fled: educated and from the middle-class or affluent sections. This is brought home repeatedly in Padanna, a village next to the Valiyaparamba backwaters in Kasaragod district abutting Karnataka, from where three of the couples have vanished.Many of the houses are opulent, thanks to the efforts of that one family member either working in West Asia or running hotels and guest houses in Mumbai or Bengaluru. Sitting in the porch of his double-storey home, Abdul Rahman, who runs guest houses in Mumbai, says his elder son Ijaz, 32, had done his MBBS from China and a course in emergency medicine from Apollo Hospitals in Chennai. The younger son Shihas, 26, the more talkative of the two, had completed his BBM from Bengaluru.In pic: Bexen who converted to become Esa and his wife Nimisha who became FathimaA couple of houses away, a sweeping driveway through an arch leads to the residence of Abdul Hakeem, whose 23-year-old son Hafeezuddin left home on May 28, saying he was going to study the Koran in Kozhikode. Hakeem has been working in Dubai for the last 34 years, running an automobile workshop, and has a shop in Colaba, Mumbai, as well. “He dropped out of his BCom course after he had typhoid, saying he didn’t want to study,” says Hakeem. The family could afford that choice. In Palakkad district, Vincent KF, the father of Bexen and Bestin (who converted to Islam to become Esa and Yahya respectively), says although he himself is not educated, he slaved for years in Saudi Arabia to shore up the family’s fortunes. “When Bestin said he needed Rs 5 lakh to start a carpet business in Sri Lanka, I gave him that,” says Vincent.The case that caught the maximum attention is of Esa’s wife Nimisha who became Fathima while she was at the dental college in Poinachi in Kasaragod. Her determined mother, Bindu, took her complaint to the chief minister and political leaders of all hues, including Union Social Welfare Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot. Nimisha’s brother, incidentally, is a commando with the National Security Guards (NSG).The question these parents and others are asking themselves is: what drove these youngsters from the comfort of their homes to an unknown destination, whether it’s Ayesha with degrees in engineering and business or an unemployed Hafeezuddin? What inspires Rifaila, Ijaz’s wife, to sends messages that they are leading a good life without refrigerators, ACs and television?“We can’t overcome spiritual terrorism through wealth . It can happen even among the wealthy,” says KM Shaji, a young MLA from the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and an outspoken voice against fundamentalism. “Spirituality is being traded in the marketplace and there is no force to counter that,” he says, adding that by opting for over-religiosity, these youngsters are merely taking a shortcut to spirituality Family members interviewed by ET Magazine have similar experiences to share about the change in the behaviour of their wards. Sajitha, sister of 26-year-old Ashfaque Majeed, says a gradual transformation was brought on by the influence of his cousins, Ijaz and Shihas who, in turn, were allegedly influenced by their friend, Abdul Rashid. “He began to lose interest in our father’s business and would say we can’t enter heaven with so much money. He grew a beard, wouldn’t let himself be photographed and stopped attending weddings. If he saw me watching movies , he would tell me I would go to hell,” she says, adding that she never listened to him.Hafeezuddin, too, refused to drive his father’s cars because they were bought with a loan and insisted on a bike, bought with cash (lending money at interest or benefiting from it is considered unIslamic). At the same time, they would condemn the beliefs of the rest of their family. “He would criticise other Muslims. They believed none of us were true Muslims,” says Hakeem, Hafeezuddin’s father.While such changes might be restricted to a minuscule minority in the 8 million-strong Muslim population in Kerala, some community leaders say people have become wary of radicalisation. “It is true that fundamentalism is growing in all communities, more so in the Muslim community. This is a reaction to the feeling that their lifestyle , culture, even their civil code is being threatened,” says Dr PA Fazal Gafoor, president of the Muslim Education Society, founded by his father PK Abdul Gafoor for the educational uplift of the community.Another factor is what he terms “Arabisation”, where the second-generation of expatriates in countries like Saudi Arabia are importing the lifestyle they saw abroad. “What you should wear, what your rituals or inter-sex relations should be — they have directly imported this culture. That’s why, for instance, you see many girls in purdah in Kerala these days,” says Gafoor. Another factor, he says, is the role of self-financing educational institutions run by different religious communities, where the majority of students tend to be from that particular community. “The government should see to it that such institutions remain secular, and encourage more inter-communal mingling,” Gafoor says. Hafeezuddin’s father Hakeem goes so far as to voice suspicions that there is a “team behind all this who recruits young college students.”In Sunni-dominated Kerala, the role of the orthodox Salafi way of Islam with its emphasis on adhering to a more traditional interpretation of the Koran and Sunnah, is also being viewed with suspicion. “Salafism followed by a breakaway group is the root of these problem,” says Abdul Majeed, Ashfaque’s father and a businessman who runs hotels in Mumbai. Compounding this is the recent highlighting of a group who established a Salafi commune in Athikkad in Malappuram district.However, Kerala has so far had an indigenous version of Salafism, which is considered relatively progressive, with its emphasis on educating women and letting them worship in mosques. Their largest organisation, the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen (KNM), was founded in 1950, a successor of the Muslim renaissance movement that goes back to 1921. “KNM was the first organisation to mount a campaign against the religious fascism propagated by Abdul Nasser Madani or the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) that India’s liberation can only be through Islam,” says Dr Abdul Majeed Salahi, president of KNM’s youth wing, ISM. Madani is a fiery preacher who shot to limelight after the Babri Masjid demolition and is now in jail pending trial. The KNM has also consistently taken a firm stand against ISIS, he adds.“Last year, in Kuttiyadi in Kozhikode, we made 10,000 youngsters take an anti-IS pledge. In Kaloor stadium in Kochi, we had a programme on cyber terrorism,” he says. Salahi says that through the internet a strain of thought has been emerging, and it is not confined to Salafis, that encourages people to believe that there are not enough religious scholars in Kerala and that they need to follow those abroad. “They tell them that you can’t live like a true Muslim among those practising other religions. They don’t acknowledge secularism or democracy. These isolated thoughts emerged 15-16 years ago, and we have been speaking out against this at different forums.” KNM, he adds, has expelled such people, with the last such major expulsion in 2012. “When we see such tendencies, we stem them immediately.” Indeed, at least some of those missing told their families repeatedly about living in a land with only Muslims and a Telegram app message Ashfaque sent even mentions they had escaped from “darul-kafir” to “dar-ul-Islam”(from the house of nonbelievers to the house of Islam).The Muslim League’s Shaji believes there is a concerted attempt to target Salafism in Kerala because so far organisations accused of promoting terrorism had been the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Social Democratic Party of India, the political arm of the Popular Front of India (PFI). Professor P Koya, national executive member of the PFI, rubbishes the charges. “The (Muslim) League has its own political axe to grind. Those alleged to have gone to a so-called Caliphate are people who agree and sympathise with the Salafi school of thought. In that sense, the PFI and the SDPI never talk about going abroad and waging war for Islam. This is just a move by the League to counter criticism against them,” he retorts.The Muslim League was a powerful ally of the previous Congress-led United Democratic Front government while the Jamaat in Kerala has intriguingly managed to gain the support of Left sympathisers by taking an “anti-imperialism” stand, aided in no small part by their daily Madhyamam. The rivalry between the two factions is keen, evident in the current issue as well.The other thread tying together some of the missing is Peace International School, a chain of schools run by the Peace Foundation, headed by physics teacher-turnedevangelist MM Akbar. Among the missing 21, five have worked in the school at some point. They include Abdul Rashid, an engineer and Ayesha’s husband, considered by the families of Ijaz and Shihas to have influenced them. While Rashid was a trainer at the schools, Ayesha worked in the branch at Thrikkaripur, Shihas was a purchasing manager, Mohammad Marwan was an administrative assistant and Yahya was a trainer at its branch in Kochi.At the Thrikkaripur school, the principal declines to offer details but is unhappy with the institute’s portrayal in the media. “We sing the national anthem twice a day here. And though the majority of our 700 students may be Muslims, most of our teachers are non-Muslims,” she says. Akbar says he personally did not know any of those who have gone missing though the video testimonies of Ayesha and others who have converted are uploaded from his YouTube account (See “We Don’t Resort to Romance for Conversion”).This narrative of conversion has been creating disquietude, with the first police case in the issue being lodged on the complaint of Ebin Jacob, the brother of Yahya’s wife Mariam nee Merin Jacob, that there were attempts to forcibly convert him and even join the IS. Like Mariam, Yahya, Esa and Fathima are also recent converts to Islam, apart from Ayesha.According to his family, Bexen alias Esa was depressed after his mother left the family and an accident that maimed his right hand. He was a devout Christian before becoming an equally devout Muslim. In their locality, the brothers Esa and Yahya were even held up as model Muslims by their Muslim neighbours. Esa, who had been married once before to another girl who had converted to Islam, met Fathima on a Tuesday and that Friday, he told his family that their nikaah was done, says his stepmother, Elsie.These cases are again prompting talk about Love Jihad, the alleged campaign that young Muslim men seduce women of other religions and make them convert to Islam. While the RSS was able to raise the pitch to a national level, it first became a major issue in Kerala and adjoining areas of coastal Karnataka, with both the Church and Hindutva outfits protesting against it.Though a 2009 report by then Kerala DGP Jacob Punnoose had denied the existence of any campaign or organisation called Love Jihad, there is new speculation about the old bogey. Akbar says that anyone who wishes to convert could contact him or his organisation called Niche of Truth and that he can guide them to centres in Kerala where conversion is legally permitted. But he adds: “We don’t actively propagate conversion, particularly through romance.”Others say it is the neo-converts who are often swayed by online propaganda and who wish to wear their religion on their sleeve by adopting symbols, rather than those who grew up studying Islam from their childhood. “I see it among childhood friends who have converted later. If they had actually studied in a madarsa, they would know that the most important duty of a Muslim is to pray five times a day,” says Anwar KK, a 34-year-old entrepreneur and CPM activist in Kochi, while leaving the mosque after Friday evening prayers. Like Gafoor, he too feels self-financing institutions run by religious denominations, prompt people of one community to confine to just themselves. “I’m not sure what would be its impact on our social fabric but as far as a secular society is concerned, it’s not a healthy sign.”Anwar, however, adds that he has not come across people with radical views, even among those who have recently converted to Islam. Community members say there is also an element of scaremongering about conversions. “For the last one week, there are reports that there are large-scale conversions in the state — that is a kind of demonisation, and will only aggravate the situation,” says PFI’s Koya. “Yes, there are small groups who propagate views that watching TV is wrong but I doubt whether they are influencing mainstream thought.” While neo-converts might feel the need to assert their new religious identity, global studies buttress the fact that an over-whelming majority of those newly born into the faith do not fall prey to radicalisation.Meanwhile, the police investigation into the disappearance has led to the arrest of two aides of Mumbai-based televangelist Zakir Naik on the complaint that they, along with Yahya, tried to forcibly convert Eben Jacob and even make him join the IS. According to reports, the police have for the first time mentioned links to IS in their report filed before the Ernakulam district sessions court. Back in Padanna and Thrikkaripur, the families left behind are hopeful that their children might have gone abroad for religious studies and would return.“I try my son’s number every day though there is no response. But I still try, just in case he picks up,” says Ismail, the father of 23-yearold Mohammad Marwan.KM Shaji, MLA of the Indian Union Muslim League, recently disclosed in the assembly that he received threats from radical elements. He says the IS controversy has led to the targeting of the Salafi sect. Excerpts:These are from groups espousing radicalism. There are many organisations in Kerala that have prepared the ground for a group like the IS to take root here and the truth is that no government or organisation has been able to take practical steps to contain these groups. These factions have money, votes and media power. I’m talking about groups like the Jamaat-e-Islami, which believe in (Abul A’la) Maududi’s philosophies that Muslims can rest only after establishing an Islamic state. If the IS talks about establishing an Islamic state in practical terms, these groups support that thought ideologically.This kind of fanatic approach to religion happens even among the wealthy. The real problem is that today’s youth are trying to counter the emptiness in their lives by seeking solace through this kind of overreligiosity. If you were truly spiritual, you would try to understand your neighbour’s difficulties and help him, but they don’t do that. Instead, they think they can go to heaven by taking a bullet. This is a shortcut to spirituality, because of laziness and because they are misguided.This kind of fanatic approach to religion happens even among the wealthy. The real problem is that today’s youth are trying to counter the emptiness in their lives by seeking solace through this kind of overreligiosity. If you were truly spiritual, you would try to understand your neighbour’s difficulties and help him, but they don’t do that. Instead, they think they can go to heaven by taking a bullet. This is a shortcut to spirituality, because of laziness and because they are misguided.The younger generation is mostly not from a religious background. They feel like learning about religion suddenly, later in life, and turn to the internet but 99% of what they find is misinterpretation of Islam. In Kerala. there is also a concerted attempt to target Salafism because so far it was the Jamaat ( Jamaat-e-Islami) and the SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India) that were being accused of promoting terrorism.You must remember that even if there is a radical strain in Salafism abroad, in Kerala the Salafis had a role even in the formation of the Muslim League and they worked for the education of women. Now there are forces pulling them backward because of infighting. In the last 25 years, there has been no progressive thought coming out of any Muslim organisation in Kerala — they are too busy arguing among themselves.That was a strategic decision. We don’t support Naik’s tirades against other religions or his conversion missions. Although we can prove he has spoken against women, there is no evidence that he has said even a sentence supporting a religious terrorist organisation like the IS. Till such evidence is produced, you can’t target him, because that will only increase the insecurities of the already insecure minorities.At least five of the 21 missing ​Malayalis were at some point associated with MM Akbar’sPeace International School. Excerpts from an interview:We both use the format of open question and answers and present them before a community — that’s the only similarity. I might differ from his methods on how to present things in a secular fabric. But my understanding is that the allegations against him are baseless. I’ve known his work for around 20 years. I don’t think his talks motivate terrorism.The person considered the main link, Abdul Rashid, was a trainer with us four years ago. He was an engineer and we took him on after looking at his profile, which didn’t reveal any links to any organisation. He did his work very well. For three and a half years we didn’t think there was any issue with his character either, but after that we did wonder if he was becoming too religious. Islam teaches us to balance all aspects, not neglect one for another. Then, in January, he asked for leave to go to Sri Lanka.We are not aware of any links, neither me personally nor my colleagues. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have let him continue. We took on his wife (Ayesha) because of him. Shihas Rahman, who was working in supply chain management, also resigned before he left. I think he might also have been influenced by Rashid but I don’t know.The IS is not Islamic. Other organisations before them tried to work in the Indian context — for instance, the Jamaat-e-Islami wanted to create an Islamic state in India. But then they got democratised. These organisations create the idea that Muslims can’t live in India and try to lure the youth to a place they are told is paradise. From there, they create an anti-India sentiment, which is very dangerous. This should be tackled at the grassroots level, not just physically but also psychologically and spiritually.Salafism is a much misunderstood term. It’s more a methodology than a school, which teaches you how to understand the Koran and the Sunnah (based on the Prophet’s life, which is verbally transmitted). But that methodology does not encourage terrorism. I began my work as a Kerala Nadavathul Mujahideen worker so you could call me a Salafi in that sense, but this is not the salafism of the IS.Niche of Truth teaches about Islam in general. Anyone who wishes to convert to Islam could naturally contact me or anyone in the organisation but legally there are only two places in Kerala where you can convert, in Ponnani and Kozhikode. We can guide people to these centres. We don’t actively propagate conversion, particularly through romance.