KOZHIKODE: Muslim organisations are planning to hold counter campaigns against the move that seeks amendments to the succession laws that are part of the Muslim Personal Law in the country. The issue, which was discussed only in isolated corners, has become a point of live debate after advocate C Shukkur and his wife Dr Sheena Shukkur decided to go for remarriage under the Special Marriage Act to ensure that their daughters get full share of their property.
Ithihadu Shubbanil Mujahideen (ISM), the youth wing of the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen (KNM), is organising a programme in Kozhikode on March 15 titled ‘Inheritance, Sharia, Islam.’
KNM state president T P Abdullakoya Madani, IUML state secretary Dr M K Muneer, KNM secretary Haneef Kayakkodi, ISM president S, Shareef Melethil, N V Sakkariyya and Musthafa Thanveer will address the meeting. “The move has come at a time when there is an all-out onslaught on all that is related to Muslims and Islam. And the secular, liberal and the so-called progressive sections have become tools in the hands of Hindutva forces,” writer and scholar Musthafa Thanveer told TNIE.
Thanveer said Islam is not merely inheritance laws, but this aspect is being projected with a clear intention. “There is a well-defined methodology for bringing in changes in the Muslim society. But what is happening now is a kind of secularisation and forcible implementations of the modernist ideology, which amounts to a kind of violence,” he said.
Sunni Yuvajana Sangham (SYS), the youth wing of the Kanthapuram faction of Sunnis, is also envisaging strategies to counter the pro-reform groups. “We firmly believe that Islamic laws are divine and therefore perfectly logical. There is absolutely no need for any changes in the laws,” said Faisal Ahsani Randathani, a Sunni scholar.
“Women are given lesser share from their ancestral property because they don’t have any financial responsibilities. At the same time, the male members have additional burden,” he said.
Randathani said there is a concerted move to project that the voice for change is coming from Muslims themselves. “These voices are not from the community, but from persons who have already renounced the religion,” he said. “People have the freedom to go out and follow any law that is suited to them,” Randathani said.
He added that there is no merit in the argument that some Islamic countries have revised laws. “The rulers might have brought in some changes. Moreover, what certain rulers do cannot be the yardstick in religion,” Randathani said.