KOZHIKODE: Giving heartburn to the IUML, which is intensifying the campaign against the CPM, the Sunni organisation Samastha Kerala Jam-Iyyathul Ulema’s leader Abdussamad Pookkottoor has said the Muslims who join the Communist parties won't be disowned by the community.
In an interview to a YouTube channel, Pookkottoor, who is known as a strong IUML supporter, said all the members of the Communist parties are not atheists. “There could be many reasons for a person to join a Communist party and they need not necessarily share the atheist ideology of Communism,” he said.
It may be recalled that IUML leaders including PMA Salam, MK Muneer and KM Shaji have been targeting the CPM for its atheist ideology and campaigning that associating with Communists will pose a grave danger to the faith of the Muslims.
Salam even went to the extreme of saying that a Muslim girl would be out of the religion if she marries a Communist.
Pookkoottoor, who is the secretary of Sunni Yuvajana Sangham (SYS), said there is no doubt that the ideology of Communism is atheism, which the Communists themselves would agree. But all the members of the party may not be atheists. “An IUML worker could join the Communist party after developing some difference of opinion with the party,” he said adding that there could be other circumstances for a person to become a Communist party member.
Pookkoottoor said such persons be may be associated with madrassas or mosques. “We cannot make a decision that would antagonize such persons,” he said. Regarding Samastha’s interactions with the LDF government on various issues, the Sunni leader said it is a strategic move to get benefits that are due for the community. “Moreover, the LDF government includes sections which can be considered as believers,” he said.
IUML has been using the ‘atheist’ tag to browbeat the CPM in the last Assembly elections. Many articles were written on the ‘Communist-atheist’ agenda to destroy Islam during the run-up to the elections. The voice became shriller after the government decided to leave the appointments to the Waqf Board to the Public Services Commission (PSC). IUML wanted to portray as the latest example of the ‘anti-Muslim policy’ of an atheist government.
A section in the Samastha, led by its president Syed Muhammad Jiffiri Muthukoya Thangal, kept aloof from the campaign saying that the Sunni outfit does not have any political affiliation. Pookkoottoor’s remarks are, in fact, an attestation of Thangal’s view of the IUML and Communist parties.