After the split in the Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama in 1989, Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliyar has been engaged in efforts to empower the community by establishing various institutions, almost single-handedly. His son, Muhammad Abdul Hakeem Azhari, the managing director of Knowledge City, is keeping that tradition alive.
Though rooted deeply in religion, Azhari is of the view that there is no need for Muslims to be politically organised in the name of religion. Speaking to TNIE, he also dismissed the relevance of political Islamist groups like Jama’at-e-Islami and underlined the importance of harmony and coexistence.
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You have been elected the state president of the Sunni Yuvajana Sangham (SYS). And the Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama is celebrating its centenary in 2026. What were the objectives of Samastha and how far has it succeeded in achieving the aims over the past century?
Samastha was established to protect the beliefs and customs of Muslims in Kerala and to oppose deviant sects like the Wahhabis. By the grace of Allah, we could accomplish the task. The opponents’ activities couldn’t win the support of even 5% of the Muslims in Kerala.
But there have been instances of some people seeking fatwa from the Wahhabi scholars in Saudi Arabia?
Sunnis in Kerala seek fatwa only from the Samastha. Only people who know the situation of society can issue a fatwa. Salafis in Kerala ask fatwa from the Salafi scholars. It isn’t binding on Sunnis and Sunnis aren’t influenced.
There’s an argument that Sunnis in Kerala are being influenced by Wahhabism, especially in matters like wearing purdah?
Purdah and pants are changes that happen naturally with the changes in fashion. What is there in Islam is hijab, which means to cover. There are different hijabs in various parts of the country. Things are different in Kerala because of its affinity to the Gulf.
Is there a need for Muslims to be politically united?
We don’t believe that Muslims should be politically organised in the name of religion. Samastha doesn’t keep permanent ties with any political party.
There’s a general belief that IUML represents the entire Muslim community in Kerala…
That too is just a perception. The IUML is a political party and a majority of its cadre are Muslims. There are Muslims in the Congress, communist parties, and even in the BJP.
There was a time when IUML leaders would tell the community that they wouldn’t go to heaven if they didn’t vote for the ladder symbol of the IUML…
These are speeches of some people and not the official stand. There was no such belief. What should be counted is the stand of organisations like Samastha, Mujahid, or Jama’at. There’s a practice that the opinion of an individual in Islamic attire is taken as that of the community. That needs to be corrected.
Jama’at-e-Islami is an organisation that had been sidelined by Kerala Muslims until recently. But Panakkad Syed Munavvar Ali Shihab Thangal has said that Jama’at-e-Islami should also be included in the fight against fascism. Do you agree?
I don’t know whether Thangal has said so. Anyway, Samastha’s stand is that Sunnis should stand separately. Around 90% of Kerala Muslims are Sunnis. Organisations like the Jama’at should be kept separate. It is dangerous to include them.
There’s a perception that the Kanthapuram group is closer to the CPM…
There was a time when we were engaged in a fight with the other group. It may have created such a perception. We have given support to all parties.
There was a controversy recently when a Muslim cleric criticised a woman over an Instagram post related to her Shimla trip...
There was such an Instagram post and a person made a speech. We should address an idea rather than discussing a piece from the speech of a person. The discussion should be on what Islam says on the issue.
Is there any ban on a woman travelling like that?
That should be the question. There is no ban in Islam on travel. The stand that women shouldn’t travel alone is not the position of Islam alone. Even the film artists’ association, AMMA, had said that women actors shouldn’t travel alone. Such policies will be there considering security and there is a policy in Islam too. It says that it isn’t safe for women to travel alone.
We are discussing this issue at a time when Sunita Williams has undertaken a space journey…
Sunita Williams was not alone and she is not a Muslim. We should remember that security systems are not put in place anticipating that attacks will always happen. There are CCTV cameras here too. Nothing would have happened in the past hundred years. But they are installed because something may happen somewhere.
But now many women are getting educated and working. Should they be barred from doing so?
No. Who is barring them? Islam has laid down a policy and those who agree to it follow it. No one can insist that everybody should follow the rule.
Such discussions have happened in the backdrop of a home birth in Malappuram. What’s your stand on the issue?
Islam does not stipulate that delivery should be at home. It only states that delivery should happen in a safe environment. There’s a line of thinking in Europe that home is more hygienic compared to hospitals.
Shouldn’t a woman have a say in deciding where the delivery happens?
Certainly, she has the right and I have no right to deny it. A woman can decide that she can have the delivery at home, but the family members can suggest that the hospital is a better place.
It can be the other way round too. The husband can deny. A few recent cases have been like that...
Such a thing shouldn’t happen. The woman’s interest should get priority.
Samastha had passed a resolution in the past that women need not learn to write...
It was not confined to Samastha. At the time, the situation was the same with the Hindu and Christian communities. Muslims in Kerala had evolved an alphabet even before such a thing appeared in Malayalam. They wrote Malayalam using the Arabic alphabet. The British Library has more than a thousand books written in Arabic Malayalam. There are books on botany that run into around 6,000 pages in 12 volumes. Well-studied women were there at that time too. My mother and grandmother used to read books. So, there is no point in discussing one dictum that came out at a specific point in time. Muslim girls have scaled new heights in education and so have women from other communities.
Mujahids claim that their efforts brought in a revolution in women’s education and that the Sunnis have only imitated them...
It was the Mujahids who stood in the way of Muslim women’s education. It was Sheikh Zainudeen Makhdoom and his family that promoted education. And it was Samastha that carried the efforts forward. We have more than 300 schools and several colleges. Now, there is Knowledge City and various online platforms that promote education. Mujahids said they should only be worried about thouheed and shirk. Sunni women received education from their homes. But Mujahids said women should go to mosques instead of studying at home.
What’s your stand on cooperating with those governing the country? Kanthapuram and yourself have visited Narendra Modi and Amit Shah…
We have visited Pinarayi Vijayan and Oommen Chandy too.
Isn’t there a difference in meeting Modi and Shah who are perceived as the enemies of Indian Muslims…
We don’t consider anyone as enemies. The Islamic principle is to cooperate with the rulers. It is the Prime Minister who comes to inaugurate the metro in Kerala. What’s the link between CPM and BJP there? The ruler is the ruler of all the people. I cannot say I don’t consider a person as the Prime Minister.
There’s a narrative that BJP is isolating and torturing Muslims in India…
In politics, there will be a feeling that different communities are being isolated at different points in time. We have always opposed such tendencies. We never compromised with the politics of division and segregating people in the name of religion, culture, food, and dress. But we never said there shouldn’t be any cooperation with governments.
But the position of organisations such as Jama’at-e-Islami is totally different...
Jama’at isn’t a subject that needs to be discussed at great length. They constitute less than one percent of Muslims in Kerala.
Jama’at-e-Islami’s argument that Muslims should stand united at a time when there’s an increasing attack on Muslims in India is getting wide currency…
We should examine whether the torture of Muslims started after the advent of organisations like the Jama’at or before that. Muslims lived here before that and there were no issues. Hindus and Muslims jointly fought against the Portuguese. There was no issue when we followed the Sunni line and mingled with people of other faiths. Non-Muslims embraced Islam in India through Ajmer Khwaja the most. No Hindu living around Ajmer has any grouse against Khwaja even now. They actively participate in the festivals there. Non-vegetarian food is not cooked in the vessels there, considering the sentiments of the Hindus. Mamburam Thangal’s secretary was Konthu Nair and Choyi was the secretary of Veliyamkode Umar Khazi. Islam envisages a culture of peaceful coexistence. Nerchas are examples of such a culture. The deviant sects (like the Jama’at and Mujahids) wanted to end the nerchas. The mutual distance began from there. What’s needed is the re-establishment of that coexistence.
Are you saying that it was the emergence of political Islamists like Jama’at-e-Islami that led to the intensification of religious enmity?
It is generally understood that those who are against pluralistic festivals are divisive.
But it was Jama’at and other organisations that first stepped in to launch agitations on issues like the CAA or the Waqf Bill. Naturally, won’t there be a feeling within the community that these organisations represent their sentiments?
These organisations are trying to create an impression that the issues will be solved only through agitations and that the issue pertains only to Muslims. By doing so, they are trying to win the support of a few people. This is an issue concerning the nation and the Constitution. Our policy is that Muslims alone shouldn’t stage an agitation. Carrying the photos of Hasan al Banna and Sayyid Qutb in these agitations is dangerous. That amounts to saying that their ideology is that of Muslim Brotherhood.
There’s a perception that IUML is increasingly coming under the influence of political islamist groups like Jama’at...
The EK Samastha knows IUML better. So, it would be better if you ask them.
All four Sunni organisations have been working closely in recent times. Is there any possibility of a merger?
It is not imperative but not impossible either. There may be differences in organisational or educational policies. Sunnis are working closely, as you said. There are no major issues among them, barring minor organisational problems. There was a joint conference of various Sunni organisations in Mangaluru recently and a similar meeting is going to be held in Kochi.
You said nerchas are an assimilation of Indian culture. But some IUML ministers have shown reluctance to light the traditional lamp…
Muslims always follow the culture of the land they spread out to. But Muslims will never accept the practices of other religions nor would they ask others to follow Muslim practices. Mingling is possible in cultural programmes. Lighting of the traditional lamp is a Hindu practice, which I believe is related to Shiva and Parvathi. Communist ministers, who don’t have faith, lighting the lamp is also improper.
You said there are attempts to create a division between Muslims and Christians. There were discussions on ‘narcotic jihad’, ‘love jihad’, and halal...
We understand that these discussions provided an opportunity for the public to learn more about Islam. Islam grows whenever there are controversies. More people embraced Islam in the year Babri Masjid was demolished and more people came to Islam in Europe when there was a controversy over a caricature in Denmark. Recently, after the incidents in Gaza, more and more people are getting converted to Islam. Controversies are good for Islam.
You made a comment against giving 50% reservation to women in local bodies. You said men are actually ruling even when women are in the chair. But women have proved their calibre and efficiency in many fields...
Recently, there was a discussion on giving 50% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha. When the BJP said it will be implemented in the next elections, the Congress said it should be implemented immediately. Why can’t the Congress implement it immediately, at least internally. Is there enough representation for women in CPM committees? That was the situation prevalent in our society. Nobody was ready to educate women or to bring them forward.
While it is true that such a situation existed in every community earlier, to give a religious base for discrimination is a different matter. For example, some quote the hadith that never shall a people prosper who make a woman their ruler...
The reason behind this is that it will lead to a decrease in population. How can there be deliveries if women are given additional duties? Countries like Russia, North Korea and China are facing the problem of decreasing population. M K Stalin told the people of Tamil Nadu that they are moving towards a geriatric society. Islam stated this position much earlier. There are rare women like Indira Gandhi. There are women who can climb coconut palms or drive bulldozers. General policies are not based on rare individuals. I stated that there is a shadow rule in panchayats because I heard such things from politicians. A woman is the president in my panchayat, but it is her husband who is the de facto ruler.
IUML hasn’t been in power for the past nine years. Do you think there is any loss for the Muslim community because of IUML’s absence from power?
The Muslim community in Kerala does not get much from any government. In states like Karnataka, the minority department and the Waqf Board are liberally sanctioning funds.
Was it so even when IUML was in power?
I think that’s primarily because IUML was in power (smiles). In Andhra Pradesh, where Muslims constitute 11%, the community gets 10% representation in government jobs. In Kerala, though the Muslims are 30%, they don’t have even half the due representation. There is no particular benefit for Muslims because of IUML. The educational developments in Kerala are the contributions of Samastha and MES.
One of the reasons for the split in Samastha was Kanthapuram’s declaration that religious organisations needn’t be subservient to political parties. Are the current problems in the EK Samastha due to political subservience?
That needs to be studied in depth. It should be examined whether it is because of the IUML leadership’s refusal to give importance to EK Samastha as it did earlier or because the Samastha started taking decisions independently. Anyway, it is not proper for a religious body to become the tail of a political party.
There’s a discussion on social media that time has proved the decision Kanthapuram took in 1989 to be the correct one?
Let the media other than social media say something about that. I don’t want to comment on that. Samastha should stand apart because it is an organisation of religious scholars. All other organisations come under it.
Earlier, people outside Malabar used to think IUML and Samastha are one. Now we know Samastha has an identity of its own…
That may be because there were more Sunnis in IUML and many of them worked for the party. IUML presidents were all Sunnis, barring a few in the beginning.
There are allegations that the Wahhabi influence in IUML is increasing, which is said to be the reason for the IUML-Samastha rift...
Wahhabis have been people of politics from the beginning. They will try to infiltrate politics in every place. This happened in Saudi Arabia. The Sunni community was disinterested in politics in the past, but now, they are showing deep interests in politics (not electoral politics). And the benefits are visible in society.
How do you assess the LDF government?
All governments in Kerala perform well compared to other states. At the same time, the allocation for the development of minorities is low here, maybe because of a lack of funds. We undertake our activities with donations from the public.
During the run up to the 2021 assembly elections, you said the LDF government should continue because it was carrying out development work…
What I said was that continuity of government would be beneficial for development. Projects get struck halfway due to continuous changes in government. Continuity of government may have its demerits.
What’s your assessment of Pinarayi Vijayan as the chief minister?
He is a chief minister with good commanding power and a person with humility.
There are some ex-Muslim groups operating in Kerala, which are very critical of Islam. How do you perceive them?
If a sweeper is removed from his job, he will never call himself an ex-sweeper. But a former minister is fond of being called an ex-minister. The term ex-Islam is the greatest sign of the relevance of the religion. An ex-Muslim gets recognition because he is from a relevant religion. Otherwise, he shouldn’t have used the term.
Don’t you think religion should welcome changes that happen with the development of science?
Certainly. Samastha is an organisation that accepts it at the first instance. Samastha will never oppose science. It never opposed vaccines or medical treatment.
TNIE team: Cithara Paul, M P Prashanth, Rajesh Ravi, Anna Jose, Abdul Nazer M A, Harikrishna B.
A Sanesh (photos) Pranav V P (video)