Last Saturday, a rally organized by the Popular Front of India (PFI) at Kozhikode became an open session of hate-ridden speeches against Hindus. The State general secretary of the All India Imams Council, Afsal Qasimi, led the way. He urged the Prophet’s followers to fight the RSS and attain martyrdom. Though Qasimi openly incited to indulge in violence, Kerala police remained mute spectators. 

In his speech, Qasimi said that the followers of the Prophet should be ready to fight the Sangh Parivar and become martyrs. He stated that as followers of the Prophet, the Muslim Ummah (community) should resist the RSS and show courage to say that they will not remain silent. The Prophet did not teach us to offer lemonade to one’s attackers and that Muslims should indulge in a defensive struggle. Qasimi warned that many would die and others would be jailed. He added that such martyrs would go to heaven.

While explaining why Muslims should not cooperate with Sangh Parivar organizations, Qasimi quoted the Prophet’s history. Some Muslim community organizations and leaders accused the PFI leader of misquoting the Prophet’s account in his speech. They alleged that Qasimi distorted the history of the Prophet to spread hate and that he should apologize.

Perod Abdurahman Saqafi, the leader of the Kantapuram sect, said that an attempt is being made to mislead the believers by distorting the history of the Prophet. Saqafi accused the Popular Front of selfishly growing their organization at the expense of misleading Muslim believers. He said those who do not know about Islam are misinterpreting the Prophet’s history—trying to make the Prophet a terrorist. There is also criticism that the hadith intended to teach believers patience and mercy has been turned into an incitement to kill. (Hadiths are a record of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad’s words, actions, and silent approval as transmitted through chains of narrators.)

Leaders from the Sunni organization Samastha have come out against Qasimi. These religious scholars accused PFI leaders of blasphemy since they falsely interpreted the Prophet as calling for retaliation. Sathar Panthalloor from Samastha Kerala Sunni Students Federation (SKSSF), the student wing of Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama, wrote on Facebook that Afzal Qasimi is trying to stir up sentimentality and extremism by distorting the history of the Prophet.

Panthalloor alleged that Qasimi wants to build up courage among PFI ranks. He accused PFI leaders of being daydreamers who only think of rivers of blood. The PFI Imam did not consider the whole story, he added. He claimed that the history of Islam is a story of endurance.

Kozhikode Grand Qazi Sayyid Muhammed Koya Jamalullaili demanded that Qasimi’s statement of misquoting hadith should be corrected and he should apologize to the Muslim community. Interestingly, not a single Islamist leader wanted the PFI to apologize to the Hindus. After all, the whole tirade was aimed at the Hindus in Kerala.

After the speech became controversial, Qasimi came out with an explanation. He clarified that the famous hadith was quoted to show courage and dignity in the face of the enemy. It is not the literal meaning that he mentioned but just a historical event. If you understand the context and situation, you will understand the purpose of its usage, Qasimi added. As far as Hindus are concerned, such descriptions have created more questions than answers.

PFI tried its best to play the victim card. They held the people’s grand conference with the topic “Save the Republic.” PFI leaders claimed that Sangh Parivar forces attempted to incite hatred and animosity toward the Muslim minority in Bharat by spreading false information. During the meeting, a second round of the liberation struggle was also demanded to defend the nation’s democratic ideals and stop attempts to exclude a minority community under the pretext of false jihad claims.

Anis Ahamed, national general secretary of PFI, opened the meeting by stating that his organization’s fight was for safeguarding the rights of Bharatiya citizens, as provided by the Constitution. He declared that PFI does not sugar-coat like those who conduct the Jodo Yatras to disguise the real problems the nation and its people face. It was a dig at Congress and its ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML). 

Other prominent speakers indulged in hate-mongering included PFI State president C.P. Muhammed Basheer. M.K. Faizy, national president of the Social Democratic Party of India, Lubna Siraj, president of the National Women’s Front, and A. Vasu, a human rights activist, were among others who spoke at the conference. The Hindu newspaper covered the anti-Hindu tirade in detail but failed to report Qasimi’s speech.

Muslim religious organizations are adamant in their demand to apologize for misinterpreting the Prophet’s history. They also say that Qasimi’s speech is proof of age-old criticism that the PFI distorts hadiths for selfish gain. The last thing Keralite Hindus want is different radical Islamist sections to fight among themselves, blaming each other for blasphemy. 

Thousands of PFI cadets in uniform marched through the town. Lakhs of followers attended these hate-ridden speeches and went home content. Such rallies show that radical Islam has a mass following in Kerala and that IUML’s soft ideologies are no longer relevant in the state. Unless the administration acts against such radicals, Kerala will soon go the Taliban way. Green communists ruling the state are not interested, and no cases have been filed against this hate speech.