Even as different Muslim organisations in the State have vowed to campaign against religious extremism in response to fears about exposure of Muslim youths to Islamic State (IS) ideology, a common reaction to the dangers of the radicalisation has failed to emerge thanks to the deep rift among them over various issues.
The public function organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami in Kozhikode on September 19 as part of its campaign against IS was purported to have been attended by leaders of different factions of orthodox Sunnis and the Mujahid movement, besides Jamaat-e-Islami leaders and others. None of the leaders of the Sunni and Mujahid factions turned up at the function which was inaugurated by Congress leader and MP M.I. Shanavas, after Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty, who was supposed to inaugurate it, excused himself from attending it.
“IS being a modern version of Salafism and political Islam, the Jamaat-e-Islami founded by Abul Ala Maududi carries their legacy,” said Hameed Channamangaloor, author and critic of fundamentalism in Islam. He told The Hindu that the Jamaat-e-Islami here is now forced to take a stand against the jihadist political Islam that its founder espoused. What IS is doing now, including the destruction of historical monuments, was what Salafists had done in Saudi Arabia, he noted.
“Maududi was an ideologue of Islamic religious state and IS was inspired by the thoughts of Maududi and Egyptian Islamist thinker Syed Qutb,” said A.K. Abdul Hameed, leader of the Sunni faction loyal to Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musaliyar and secretary of the Samastha Kerala Sunni Vidyabhyasa Board.
He said that the Kanthapuram faction distanced themselves from the function because it was directly organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami.
U.P. Yahya Khan, president of the Ithihadushubbanil Mujahideen (ISM), the youth wing of the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen, a Mujahid faction led by Hussain Madavoor, sounded a different note.
He said that the faction would have sent its representative to the anti-IS function, had it been invited. “Though the Jamaat-e-Islami’s literature contains ideas of political Islam, they are not espousing them in the State anymore,” he added.
Referring to the poster campaign by the Kanthapuram faction against its campaign against IS, Jamaat-e-Islami sources said that that the Sunni faction was annoyed with the Jamaat-e-Islami over the latter’s stand on the “holy hair” row.
A common reaction to the dangers of radicalisation has failed to emerge due to the deep rift among Muslim bodies.
