KOZHIKODE: Social media activist Ashkar Lessirey’s face turned red when he received an Amazon India dispatch, which carried the colour of the flag of the LGBTQ community on the wrapper. An enraged Ashkar took to the Facebook to post: “Dear Amazon India, you can have all the politics you want. Just don’t shove it down the throats of your customers.”
Ashkar’s angry reaction epitomises the sentiments of some of the Muslim organisations in Kerala that have launched a campaign against homosexuality and gender politics. Popular Front of India (PFI) leader and academic Dr Ashraf Kalpetta wrote a book ‘Homosexuality and Gender Politics’, Jama’at-e-Islami women’s wing organised a talk on the issue at Kannur on June 15 and Renai TV -- under the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen (KNM) -- held a programme online on ‘Unknown Aspects of Gender Politics.’
PFI state president C P Muhammad Basheer and treasurer K H Nazar were present during the release of Dr Ashraf’s book.
“The Muslim community in Kerala is increasingly becoming aware of the dangers behind the issue. My opposition to the LBGTQ issue is political. It sexualises even infants and has become a huge lobbying force. Those who speak against the group are bullied and threatened,” Ashkar said. In the preface to Dr Ashraf’s book, Salafi preacher MM Akbar said gender politics has started engulfing Kerala too.
Akbar added that even communism is propagating the ideology of liberalism, and its feeder organisations are moulding the youth along these lines. (Akbar was indirectly referring to SFI’s campaign celebrating homosexuality.)
In the Renai TV programme, participants Muhammad Ameer, Nasim Rehman and Abdul Muhsin felt there is a conscious effort to project the queer community as a persecuted lot. Homosexuality is being normalised and is portrayed just as the desire of one person, Nasim Rehman said. The participants claimed there is heavy opposition from teachers too when they propagate the Quranic verses against homosexuality. However, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political wing of PFI, said the party is for the rights of the sexual minorities.