KOZHIKODE: Two powerful Muslim leaders have reasserted their Sunni identity at a time when discussions are rife in the community that there is no necessity to sustain the old divisions such as Sunni and Mujahid in the changed social and political scenario in the country.
In an article in Suprabhatham daily to mark the 96th anniversary of the organisation on Sunday, Samastha president Syed Muhammad Jiffiri Muthukoya Thangal recalled that his organisation came into being to resist the onslaught of the ‘deviant sects’ on Islam in Kerala.
“The success of Samastha’s activities till now is that it could defeat deviant ideas and preserve the identity of Islam,” wrote Thangal. He was referring to the establishment of Samastha in 1926 to counter the spreading of Mujahid ideas in Kerala. Thangal added that Samastha was formed after the scholars realised the danger of Kerala Muslims drifting away from the traditional path.
Thangal’s words assume importance in the backdrop of the recent rift between the organisation and the Coordination of Islamic Colleges (CIC), which argued that there is no need to pursue the anti-Mujahid agenda aggressively.
Thangal’s article reiterated the traditional Sunni stand that the ideologies of Mujahids and Jama’at-e-Islami are dangerous to the community and rejected the CIC stand that the differences among Muslim organisations should be swept under the carpet for the common good of the community in Kerala. CIC has allegedly introduced ideologies alien to that of Sunnis in its educational institutions for ‘academic purposes, which was strongly opposed by Samastha.
Sunni preacher Rehmathullah Qasimi had warned against the active presence of pro-Mujahid elements in the Sunni institutions. Meanwhile, the followers of the rival Sunni leader Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliyar are celebrating their leader’s ‘refusal to greet’ Mujahid leader Hussein Madavoor at the communal harmony meeting hosted by the Indian Union Muslim League in Kozhikode on June 23.
They say Kanthapuram did not return the greeting and even refused to shake hands with Madavoor because the leader was not ready to dilute his anti-Mujahid ideology. His followers on social media are full of appreciation of Kanthapuram’s act, which is seen by them as an expression of his principled stand against the Mujahid ideology. In his speech at the conference, Kanthapuram declared that he has no affiliation to any party other than the commitment to the Sunni ideology.
Celebrating the refusal
The followers of Sunni leader Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliyar are celebrating their leader’s ‘refusal to greet’ Mujahid leader Hussein Madavoor at the communal harmony meet hosted by the Indian Union Muslim League in Kozhikode on Thursday last. According to them, Kanthapuram did not return the greeting and even refused to shake hands with Madavoor because the leader was not ready to dilute his anti-Mujahid ideology. His followers on social media are full of appreciation of Kanthapuram’s act