Death threats have arisen in Kerala against Islamic scholar CH Mustafa Maulavi. Mustafa is an intellectual who questions the old values of Islam. He is also a fierce critic of Muslim Personal Law (Shariat).
Mustafa is also an advisor to the Center for Inclusive Islam and Humanism. He is a scholar who criticizes the Sharia laws in different Islamic countries. Sharia laws in Egypt differ from those in Tunisia. These rules do not apply in Jordan.
Similarly, Mustafa says there are different opinions on inheritance laws in other parts of the world. It is not the Muslim personal law that exists in those countries that exist in Bharat. The Muslim personal law in Bharat, written in 1937, is against the Quran. Therefore, the Quran should be reformed, argues Maulavi, a Quranic commentator.
Mustafa has questioned gender discrimination in Islam. The critic is getting death threats from his religion. He has recently been stopped in the street and publicly questioned by those who advocate conservative Islam.
“Earlier, they (radical Islamists) used to abuse only on social media. But now they are also threatening me in public places,” Mustafa said. He lamented that complaints to the police were not taken seriously. I do not fear death.”- Mustafa added. The local communist regime openly supports orthodox Islamists, and victims must fend independently.
19 September, Maulavi was threatened while traveling in the Garib Rath train from Kozhikode to Kottayam. He was going to participate in the Sree Narayana Guru Samadhi program. If you are a follower of Sree Narayana Guru, then why do you call yourself a Maulavi, abused a heckler?
That fellow passenger created a scene and declared that Maulavi tried to destroy Islam. He also asked if Maulavi knew what happened to Chekannur Maulavi. Following this bitter experience, Mustafa lodged a complaint with the Kozhikode Cyber Police, but the police are not ready to record their statement or register an FIR, said Mustafa.
Chekannur Moulavi
Chekannur Moulavi was a Muslim social reformer who tried to bring Islamists into the mainstream. Maulavi founded the Quran Sunnath Society, known for Jamitha Teacher, the first Bharatiya woman imam.
V V Hamza and Chekannur Moulavi (Images courtesy Kerala Kaumudi)
The Quran Sunnath Society, founded by Moulavi, has always locked horns with the orthodox beliefs in Islam. The progressive views of Islam offered by Moulavi frequently cause conflict with extremist Islamic organizations. Even today, Jamitha continues to be threatened and even attacked by extremist believers.
Moulavi was last seen on 29 July 1993, when he left his house in Chekannur, Malappuram, to give a lecture with two unidentified individuals in a car without license plates. His wife, Howah Umma, and uncle Salim Haji filed a complaint, which led to the opening of an investigation that garnered much media attention. Maulavi’s body is yet to be recovered.
After the CBI took over the inquiry in 1996, two members of the ultra-orthodox Muslim sect connected to A.P. Kanthapuram Aboobacker Musliyar were detained in 2000 on suspicion of murder. Ten persons were charged with the murder in 2005.
AP Kanthapuram Aboobacker Musliyar (Images courtesy coastaldigest.com)
In 2008, several witnesses escaped abroad instead of showing up to testify, and their properties were confiscated. The appeal by Maulavi’s widow to have Musliyar charged with murder was approved by a CBI Court. The order was reversed by the Kerala High Court after it was appealed to the Supreme Court. In the end, Musliyar, represented by legal heavyweight Harish Salve, prevailed in court.
On 30 September 2010, the CBI Special Court in Kochi convicted V.V. Hamza, the main accused in the murder of Maulavi, to two life terms in prison and a fine. The other eight defendants were acquitted. The court found that Maulavi’s body was disposed of in some mysterious manner so as never to be recovered.
However, the Kerala High Court stated in October 2018 that there was only an assumption that Moulavi had been murdered and that there was no proof to support that claim. As a result, all accused in the case, including Hamza, were acquitted.
