Controversy Surrounds Screening of "The Kerala Story" by Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala

As part of a "awareness campaign," a branch of the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala has declared that, beginning on April 13, all parishes would broadcast The Kerala Story, a contentious film about Muslim teenagers forcing Hindu girls to convert.

Following the outcry against the Idukki Diocese for screening the movie, the Kerala Catholic Youth Movement (KCYM) branch of the Thamarassery Diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church decided to play the movie on Tuesday at 6.30 p.m.

The film will be shown at all 120 of the KCYM Thamarassery Diocese's locations, which are connected to as many parishes in north Kerala, according to Richard John, the diocese's president, who spoke with The Telegraph on Tuesday. He argued that they had every right to broadcast The Kerala Story since it wasn't an outlawed film.

In the Hindi movie, impressionable women—mostly Hindu—are shown to be duped by young Muslims into marrying them under false pretenses so they may be trafficked to join the Islamic State.

John said he had nothing to do with politics, much less be a party supporter, when informed that the screening's scheduling was under scrutiny since Kerala has its election on April 26 and the BJP is frantically attempting to establish itself in the state.

"This movie's showing is devoid of any political overtones at all. If not, John said, "We would be showing it in public spaces similar to how the DYFI screened the BBC documentary." In an effort to protest the Centre's decision to remove India: The Modi Question from internet platforms, the CPM youth wing DYFI exhibited the film in public spaces around the state.

John said, "What we are going to do is purely an awareness drive, not a protest."

John said that the KCYM only cared about "protecting its youths, especially girls" after being informed that even the film's creators had changed their minds about the quantity of girls they claimed to have trafficked.

The Archdiocese of Thalassery has disassociated itself from the movie's screening decision made by its KCYM branch.

Former Jacobite Syrian Church bishop Geevarghese Mor Coorilos declared: "Dioceses operating in the name of Jesus Christ should be propagating love stories and not hate stories."