KOZHIKODE: The pro-IUML faction in the Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama has launched a campaign to block CPM’s efforts to woo Muslims by raising issues such as the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA). The group has launched a social media campaign to ‘expose the anti-Muslim’ face of CPM, while the party is busy holding anti-CAA rallies in the state, mainly in Malabar.
In a Facebook post, writer Moyin Malayamma said the presence of Musaliyars in CPM’s Constitution Protection Rally in Malabar was not a good sign.
“It is the negation of the stand they took in the past 95 years. Are there no threats from the CAA outside Malabar? Is the area a part of Pakistan? Answer is very simple. It is only party propaganda. Those who have common sense will understand it. Feel pity over those who join it even after understanding the agenda,” he wrote in the post.
It is the support extended by the rival group in Samastha to LDF candidate in Ponnani K S Hamsa that infuriated the pro-IUML group most. “None of the Samastha leaders or scholars has said Hamsa is their candidate. It is not Samastha’s tradition to be subservient to the communists,” says a message circulating in pro-IUML groups. The message adds that the history of the Samastha is that it showed a way out for the ‘Arival Sunnis’ (Kanthapuram group) who hobnobbed with the CPM.
“Some red musaliyars who are dreaming of material benefits might have said so. But Samastha is not responsible for it,” the message said, apparently referring to the pro-CPM remarks by Samastha mushawara member Umar Faizi Mukkam.
Other campaign materials being circulated in the group are harsher. A poster recalls the remarks by CPM leader Kadakampally Surendran. “CPM is the party of Kadakampally Surendran, who said the content of Malappuram is communal, after the party’s electoral defeat,” said the poster. Another said CPM is the party of EMS who spoke against Sharia laws.
Another post highlights the statement from CPM state committee member K Anil Kumar, who had said it was CPM’s contribution that many Muslim girls have come forward to discard the head scarf. Yet another post says it was SFI that staged ‘Kithab’, the play presented by school students accused of hurting religious sentiments.
It is not the first time the pro-IUML group is campaigning against CPM. It had alleged that the LDF government was promoting liberalism and gender neutrality through school curriculum. Sunni scholars like Bahaudeen Nadvi had recalled the past incident of religious leaders from Malappuram burning the red flag of the communists to protest the ‘irreligious ideology.’
