Feb 15, 1999

With fatwas and punishments, a clutch of radical Muslim leaders holds the entire community to ransom.

By M G Radhakrishnan

• For 12-year-old Safa Mariam Ahmed and her family the celebrations ended before they even began. Having won several prizes at the annual cultural competition at her Vocational Higher Secondary School at Payyanakkal, Kozhikode, she had just been chosen the festival's best artiste. To add to the family's delight, her elder sister Ofean also won prizes in the dance and drama competitions. Two days later came the bad news: a letter from the local Ihya-Ul-Ulum Madarsa informed the two girls that they could no more pursue Islamic studies at the madarsa. The crime: performing on stage, considered to be against Islamic tenets by the local mahal committee. Their father Ahmed Koya approached the courts for justice after his pleas for mercy were rejected.
• Elsewhere in North Kerala, Tasnibanu, 20, a student of Manchery in Malappuram, wanted to marry Abdul Nasser under the Special Marriage Act instead of the traditional Islamic rites. It was then that the local masjid committee and some fundamentalist groups moved in. Banu was dismissed from her college by its Muslim management, confined to home by her father and tortured by her relatives. A worried Nasser filed a habeas corpus petition in the Kerala High Court.

Targeted by fundamentalist organisations, Tasnibanu and the Ahmed family at least looked up to the courts for justice. But in Kerala's Muslim-dominated Malappuram district and parts of Kozhikode, there are scores of others who submit to the tyranny in silence. The trend is alarming. The local masjid/mahal committees, backed by some Muslim extremist groups, have taken it upon themselves to impose Islamic law on the Muslims and punish those who are "wayward". The fundamentalist groups, led by the National Democratic Front (NDF), have particularly targeted the liberals in the community: those who do not strictly follow Islamic laws like abstaining from liquor, fasting during Ramzan and wearing the makhna or the purdah.

The consequences for those who violate these orders can be disastrous: social ostracism and even attacks and arson. "The Muslim community is being terrorised by these fundamentalists as there is a well-orchestrated attempt to Talibanise it," says S. Jabbar, district secretary of the Kerala Uktivadi Sanghom (Rationalist Association). For his outspoken views, Jabbar had to pay a price: last month, his house was attacked. Says K. Natarajan, sp, Malappuram: "The extremist groups have taken over the role of the moral police in many places."

Ahmed Koya, father of the girls expelled from their madarsa for participating in a cultural festival, says the masjid committees have been hijacked by fundamentalist bodies like the NDF. "I am a devout Muslim and do not have to be told what is Islamic by them." But the masjid committee is adamant: "It is against Islam for girls or women to perform on stage," says P.K. Mohammed, president of the Madarsathul Alaviya.

"NDF activists imposed a strict vigil on her movements and even tried to molest her." Abdul Nasser, fiance of Tasninbanu, 20

Case: Banu dismissed from college as she wanted to marry as per the Special Marriage Act. Recourse: Nasser filed a petition in court.

The NDF, a Kozhikode-based organisation, is currently said to be in the forefront of the extremist outfits working among the Muslim community. But unlike other fundamentalist groups like the Progressive Democratic Party and the Islamic Sevak Sangh, which are virtually defunct now, the NDF functions openly and has offices in several districts. Most of its office bearers are respected professionals in various fields. Says O.M. Abdul Rahman, NDF chairman and professor at Cochin University: "We are an organisation committed to campaigning for the civil rights of the minorities and Dalits." Last year, Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar informed the state Assembly that the NDF was among the many organisations having links with extremists. According to an Intelligence Bureau (IB) official, three years after its formation in 1993, the NDF started a clandestine wing. "The overt wing organises seminars and holds adult education camps, while the covert wing is responsible for bomb attacks, stockpiling arms, training cadres and so on." It has also been charged with receiving huge donations from Gulf countries.

Most liberal Muslims, the Indian Union Muslim League, the Kerala Police and the IB concede that NDF is the main force behind the sudden increase in Muslim radicalism in the state. Police also say that some of the attacks against so-called violators of Islamic laws have been engineered by the NDF. The group has been behind the campaigns against school uniforms, singing Vande Mataram in schools and lighting of traditional lamps. "We have no evidence to show that NDF has been involved in this, but its emergence has certainly radicalised the psyche of the dissatisfied young people," say K.A. Siddique Hassan, the genial ameer (state chief) of the Jamaat-i-Islami.

"I am a devout Muslim and don't need to be told what is Islamic by them." Ahmed Koya, father of Safa Mariam, 12 and Ofean, 14

Case: Mariam and Ofean were expelled from their madarsa for performing on stage in school. Recourse: Father moved court.

The victims too point an accusing finger at the NDF. Tasnibanu's fianc Nasser says the group was most active in Banu's persecution. "They imposed a strict vigil on her movements and also tried to physically molest her," he says. Tasnibanu also invited the extremists' ire by refusing to cover her head. But K.M. Ashraf, NDF Supreme Council member, denies NDF's involvement in the matter or in other incidents of violence against Muslims. Admitting that some NDF members were involved in the murder of godman Siddhan and in attacks on some prostitutes in Malappuram last month, Ashraf, however, says, "They acted on their own and not under our direction. Action has been taken against them."

The virtual Talibanisation of the community has, however, not elicited much response from the state's major political parties. They seem keen not to offend the Muslim groups. "The CPI(M) and the Congress want to appease the minorities and do not dare say a word," charges Jabbar. However, Syedalikutty, the CPI(M)'s Malappuram district secretary, says, "We have been campaigning against the NDF and related extremist groups for long. But we do not want to meddle in religious and family disputes like that of Tasnibanu." When self-styled champions of a faith impinge on fundamental rights and hold an entire community to ransom, however, it's no longer a family dispute.

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