Some time ago, a delegation from the Students Islamic Organisation of India visited me and handed over a booklet titled ‘What is Islamophobia’. The SIO and its parent body, Jamaat-e-Islami, are at the forefront of efforts to combat Islamophobia in Kerala. However, the same Jamaat-e-Islami has also been aggressively championing political Islam—albeit couched as identity politics.
Such contradictions aside, Muslim outfits in Kerala often hold the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—and, in some cases, the Left—responsible for the spread of Islamophobia in the state. The term ‘Chri-Sanghi’, coined by James Panavelil, a priest of the Syro-Malabar Church, has also brought Christians under that ambit.
Yet, these Muslim organisations are seldom willing to apportion any blame to their own fraternity for fanning Islamophobia. In fact, any question about the outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI) or Abdul Nazar Madani is often countered with whataboutery: “But what about the Sangh Parivar?”
This reveals not only their defensive mindset toward Muslim fundamentalism but also a rigid refusal to acknowledge the existence of Islamists within the community. Just as these Muslim outfits audit others for stoking Islamophobia, isn’t it time they were also held accountable for their omissions and commissions?
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Islamophobia’s internal enablers
There are instances galore of Muslim organisations stoking Islamophobia in Kerala.
A case in point is the recent campaign against MEC 7, a fitness programme started in Malappuram over a decade ago by ex-CISF soldier Salahudheen P.
The movement against it is fuelled by the Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama’s AP faction, so named for its leader Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, also known as Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad.
Just this week, Kanthapuram Musliyar himself came out in the open against MEC 7, referring to the mixing of men and women in the programme as “haram” and then blaming critics for “abusing Musliyars”.
The Jamaat-e-Islami’s shrill campaign to make Hamas synonymous with Palestine has also played a part in stoking Islamophobia in recent times. Then there’s the Munambam issue, a land dispute between the Kerala Waqf Board and a community of Christian fisherfolk. Various Muslim organisations claimed the land as Waqf property without studying the legal position, and without thinking through the social consequences of taking a hardline position.
In another controversy, Abdul Hameed Faizy Ambalakkadavu of the Samastha’s EK faction has more than once criticised IUML president Sayyid Sadiq Ali Thangal for participating in Christmas celebrations. In 2023, Ambalakkadavu objected after Thangal was photographed eating cake alongside BJP state president K. Surendran. Then in 2024, Ambalakkadavu reignited the debate after Thangal visited the Bishop’s house for Christmas and was again photographed eating cake, though Surendran or other BJP politicians were not present.
Of course, this issue has a clear element of factional and sectarian politics. Ambalakkadavu is part of the Shajra faction of the EK Samastha, a ginger group that has adopted a pro-Left position within the organisation.
But Amabalakkadavu is a repeat offender, having raked up this issue even a year back, leading to contentious debates in Kerala.
Faith revivalism
These developments also need to be viewed in conjunction with other social shifts, including the rise of Halal-certified restaurants and Kerala’s changing food habits.
Take a road trip across Kerala on the National Highway and you’ll see an influx of Arabic restaurants. The number of Keralites working in the Persian Gulf and the resultant exchange of culinary tastes is a reason for this, but it has also fuelled Halal debates.
In my childhood, it was common for us friends to visit each other’s homes and break bread with families. There has been a change on this count lately as people have now begun to enquire whether the meat served at weddings—and even households—is Halal-certified. Strangely, prosperity has been accompanied by faith revivalism.
This is also witnessed in changing sartorial styles, with more women taking to hijabs and purdahs—attire that wasn’t originally part of Kerala’s public life before the Gulf oil boom. The Malayalam film industry which churned out a number of Muslim socials from the ‘50s would testify to this change. Back then, Muslim female characters had their own unique attire, which has now been replaced by these adopted practices.
Religion vs rules in schools and colleges
A few months ago, a huge controversy erupted over some girl students demanding that they be allowed to perform namaz at Nirmala College, run by the Syro-Malabar Church in central Kerala. It was the timely intervention of Vicar General Monsignor Pius Malekandathil, who previously taught history at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, that ensured that the matter didn’t go out of hand.
This was followed by an even more bizarre demand at St Joseph’s Higher Secondary School in Paingottoor, located fairly close to Nirmala College, that two Class 12 girls be allowed to offer namaz. I undertook a personal fact-finding mission in its wake to determine if there was a pattern behind these incidents. It so happens that my family runs another school, barely a couple of miles from St Joseph’s.
It turned out that only one girl continued to insist on the demand even after being dissuaded by the school authorities. This same girl had previously insisted on wearing full-sleeve clothing that reached her palms beneath her uniform—a request the school had accommodated. In a conversation with me, her father, an adherent of the ultra-orthodox Tablighi Jamaat and a wealthy businessman and cleric, sounded extremely resentful about his daughter being denied the opportunity to perform namaz in school.
According to the Kerala Education Rules, relaxations are given to Muslim students only on Fridays to attend prayers if mosques are available nearby—which St Joseph’s had been duly following.
Separately, the Left government had formed a committee under MA Khader to propose reforms in Kerala’s school education. The committee recommended the adoption of gender-neutral uniforms and change in school timings, along with the conversion of all public schools into co-educational institutions. The state cabinet gave an in-principle nod to all of it—before Muslim bodies flexed their muscles to overturn it.
These organisations opposed the change in public school timings, arguing it would leave no time in the morning for students from the community to attend madrasa or religious studies. Their resistance to gender-neutral uniforms and co-education was attributed to “religious reasons”.
Left appeasement of Islamists
Although it is generally the Congress and its ally, the IUML, that take disproportionate blame for pandering to conservative elements of all communities, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has cynically used such reactionaries for its own ends during successive terms in power.
Following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, when the IUML refused to heed the call of Muslim bodies to quit the Congress-led state government in protest, the CPI-M in Kerala built a rainbow coalition of fundamentalist and orthodox Muslim political parties to capture power.
This coalition included the Indian National League (INL), an IUML splinter led by Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait; the Abdul Nazar Madani-led Islamic Seva Sangh (ISS), which later became the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); the National Development Front (NDF), which metamorphosed into the Popular Front of India (PFI); the Samastha AP faction; and the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Today, the INL, the PDP, and the Samastha AP faction continue to back the Left, even as the Jamaat-e-Islami aligns with the Congress and IUML. Along with its opposition to MEC 7, the AP Samastha has now initiated a campaign against the Jamaat-e-Islami as a counter to the latter’s political campaign against the CPI-M, which it has accused of promoting ‘Hindutva Marxism.’
Just as the Sangh Parivar and the CPI-M have their share of intellectuals and propagandists, the Jamaat-e-Islami, too, has cultivated non-Muslim faces, such as Ezhava intellectual Baburaj Bhagawathi, Dalit activist Sunny M Kapikkad, and far-left fringe frigures such as PA Prem Babu, to propagate its agendas.
The IUML’s culpability
For all its positive contributions to Kerala, the IUML must also take its share of the blame for past misjudgments that have contributed to the stoking of Islamophobia.
Most notably, the Oommen Chandy cabinet’s induction of a fifth minister from the IUML in 2011-12 had a ripple effect on subsequent political events, including the consolidation of Hindu groups as a counter to it. The unwieldy controversy in 2015 over the lighting of traditional Kerala lamps during public functions comes to mind in the wake of the cake controversy.
An article written by IUML state president Sayyid Sadiq Ali Thangal in 2020, hailing Turkey’s reconversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, proved to be another blunder, further feeding Islamophobia. Today, the IUML’s welcoming of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s support could turn out to be a double-edged sword. In any case, the Jamaat-e-Islami holds more utility for the IUML as it attempts to gain wider acceptance.
For all its secular pretensions, the Jamaat cannot change its spots. This is most evident in its prejudicial position on the Munambam issue. While IUML secretary Mohammed Shah concurred with this assessment in a conversation, KP Noushad Ali of the Congress begged to differ: “The fact that the Jamaat-e-Islami is not using the Munambam issue for propaganda purposes is a huge relief for us under the current circumstances.”
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The PFI and Salafi fringe
Alongside mainstream Muslim outfits and political parties, the PFI and fringe Salafi groups have played a massive role in stoking Islamophobia in Kerala. The hand-chopping of college professor TJ Joseph by PFI cadres— reportedly triggered by a reference to Prophet Mohammad in a BCom question paper—was an inflection point.
Notably, it was Madhyamam, a daily run by the Jamaat-e-Islami, that first highlighted the question paper controversy on its local pages, which eventually spiralled out of control.
The dozen-odd people who left Kerala to join the Islamic State in 2015-16 were mostly adherents of Salafism who had been influenced by online preachers. This led to yet another wave of Islamophobia. The Hadiya conversion case followed, with the PFI once again playing a role behind the scenes. Today, self-styled Salafi preachers are mushrooming on YouTube and other platforms in northern Kerala, drawing even the attention of state intelligence officials.
Suffice it to say, the Jamaat-e-Islami and political outfits that campaign against the stoking of Islamophobia in Kerala must first look within before conveniently laying the blame on others.
Anand Kochukudy is a Kerala-based journalist and columnist. He tweets @AnandKochukudy. Views are personal.
The rising islamofascism in Kerala might bring a Syria like civil war in near future as indian central forces are busy covering bangladesh border
What a joke!
Islamists and Islamo-fascists are auditing others on Islamophobia.