KOZHIKODE : Sunni scholar and general secretary of Kerala Samsthana Jem-Iyyathul Ulama A Najeeb Moulavi has exhorted Muslims to cast their votes this election at any cost even if that meant skipping the mandatory juma on Friday.
Muslims exercising their franchise is essential for “protecting democracy and secularism”, and even skipping the Juma for the purpose is justified if there is no alternative, considering the gravity of the situation, he said, answering a question at a programme at Mambad in Malappuram on Sunday last.
Moulavi said it is imperative to defeat the machinations of the ‘the anti-Muslim forces’ to keep the community members away from voting by the fixing the election day on a Friday.
The Lok Sabha elections in Kerala fall on April 26 (Friday). Major Muslim organisations in the state had requested the Election Commission to change the date as it would be difficult for Muslim polling officials and booth agents to perform Friday juma.
Moulavi said the Lok Sabha election is of paramount importance and the efforts should be to defeat the communal forces and to establish a secular and democratic government. “Muslims should not be in trouble if the EC does not change the day. There are other ways out for Muslims,” he said.
There are practical solutions to the issue, which include conducting juma in a phased manner. “One group can hold juma and go back and another juma can be held for polling officials and booth agents,” he said. If there is no scope for two jumas, there are other solutions, he said.
There is a provision in Islam to abstain from juma if it affects one’s vocation. There are other occasions too when juma can be avoided. Quoting an incident from Islamic history, Moulavi said Ibn Umar had avoided juma once when he realised that his close relative was ill. “When Ibn Umar came to know about the illness of his relative, he skipped the juma at the mosque in Medina and proceeded to visit the patient,” Moulavi said.
“We should be vigilant to see whether there is any possibility of miscreants damaging the voting machines when Muslims go to juma or is there any chance of bogus voting in the absence of Muslims in the booth. No Muslim should keep away from their responsibility in the name of Friday juma,” he said.