03-17-2006, 10:34 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sickle mullahs</b>
Pioneer.com
By Arun Lakshman
The Malappuram state conference of the CPI(M) in 2005 was unique in that the party choose that place only to pander to retrograde minority sentiments. The Marxists had selected Malappuram, the district with the heaviest concentration of Muslims, after the victory of its leader, TK Hamza, from Manjeri in the last Lok Sabha polls. Hamza's triumph upset the applecart of the Muslim League. The latter had always taken the constituency for granted and it had retained it through successive election with huge margins. Once the Marxists tasted blood, they decided to consolidate their party's hold in the area to ensure that it was no one off. Incidentally, the creation of Malappuram is linked to their former general secretary, EMS Namboodiripad.
Inaugurating the reception committee office of the Malappuram state conference, the state secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, said that <b>the party had chosen Malappuram to showcase its concerns for Muslims with a view to strengthening its bonds with the community. A pravasi organisation based in West Asia, considered the arm of the CPI(M) in the Gulf, had conducted a conference six months prior to the Malappuram meet where the decorative arches were filled with portraits of Variyam Kunnath Kunhahmad Haji and Chembrasseri Thangal, the leaders of the infamous Moplah riots of 1921. </b>These events proved the extent to which the Marxists are dependant on icons of Islamic fundamentalism for their political survival and the lengths to which they would go to mollify communal sentiments.
<b>The Malappuram state conference tried to out shadow the Congress, Muslim League and even Islamic forces in promoting the cause of pan-Islamism</b>. The town - in fact the entire district - was decorated with posters and giant cutouts of Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat. It was <b>difficult to understand what the theme of the conference was: Islamic brotherhood or world revolution</b>. There were even posters and banners with messages and drawings pointing out <b>connections between Islamic fundamentalism and "revolutionary dogma" spun by Marx and Engels.</b> It was clear that the CPI(M) was out to convey the message to Muslims that they would be prepared to perform handstands to impress the Muslims. Quite naturally, the minds of ordinary <b>Malayalees were bombarded by images of Muslim barbarity from the past, particularly the experience of Nadapuram</b>, a Communist stronghold in north Kerala.
<b>The Muslim League, of course, feels justified in keeping Islamist fundamentalism alive and kicking</b>. In the recent district committee meeting held in Malappuram, there were huge billboards depicting E Ahmad, the Minister of State for External Affairs in the Manmohan government, holding the hand of the hardline Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The slogan below the picture read: "Not to be separated but to be closer."
The question which nationalists may find entitled to ask is: Why are foreign mascots used by nationalist claiming political parties? During the first Gulf war, several streets and villages in the Muslim pockets of Kerala were renamed "Saddam Street" and "Saddam village". <b>Political workers, both of the Left and Muslim camps, competed with each other for space in the Islamic vision of a just world order.</b> Massive protest marches were held throughout the state against the US strike in Iraq, and now it's the turn of Iran to be at the centre of that competition.
In the Muslim stronghold of Karuvarakkundu, youths showing support to the Muslim League, with the support of certain office bearers of a mosque committee, have issued a <b>fatwa against Muslims who joined the Communist parties.</b> They had taken out some points from a book written by a West Asia-based Islamic preacher, Yusuf-ul- Khardawi, in which he had criticised Communism. There were issues in the area based on this and <b>fatwas were issued threatening non-burial after death to those Muslims to turned Communist.</b>
Islamic organisations, whether moderate or extremist, are nowadays falling over each other to invite <b>Ul-Khardawi </b>to their conferences and meetings. This can be directly linked to a new phenomenon of inviting Islamic leaders from abroad, especially West Asia, for meetings and conferences organised by almost all Islamic groups. Some office bearers of these organisations told The Pioneer that <b>these people are invited mainly to show them the "progress of the work" conducted by them - either construction of a mosques or an orphanage - with petrodollar donations. </b>In Kozhikode alone, there are organisations which used to collect huge funds from individuals and governments from the Gulf region.
The recent deliberations within the CPI(M) regarding its chief ministerial candidate, VS Achuthanandan, also had its origins in the minority appeasement issue. Achuthanandan was cleverly pushed out from the poll fray. The reason furnished by state leaders before the central committee was that he was "anti-minority" and "anti-development". <b>The Muslim League had also pillored Achuthanandan as being anti-mino</b>rity. If both these statements are read together, one can find some interesting similarities. The CPI(M) has decided to enter the poll fray by projecting Paloli Mohammed Kutty, a veteran leader, as the chief minister candidate. But whether this is a ploy to woo Muslims or based on some genuine superiority over Achuthanandan can only be ascertained after the polls.Â
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Pioneer.com
By Arun Lakshman
The Malappuram state conference of the CPI(M) in 2005 was unique in that the party choose that place only to pander to retrograde minority sentiments. The Marxists had selected Malappuram, the district with the heaviest concentration of Muslims, after the victory of its leader, TK Hamza, from Manjeri in the last Lok Sabha polls. Hamza's triumph upset the applecart of the Muslim League. The latter had always taken the constituency for granted and it had retained it through successive election with huge margins. Once the Marxists tasted blood, they decided to consolidate their party's hold in the area to ensure that it was no one off. Incidentally, the creation of Malappuram is linked to their former general secretary, EMS Namboodiripad.
Inaugurating the reception committee office of the Malappuram state conference, the state secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, said that <b>the party had chosen Malappuram to showcase its concerns for Muslims with a view to strengthening its bonds with the community. A pravasi organisation based in West Asia, considered the arm of the CPI(M) in the Gulf, had conducted a conference six months prior to the Malappuram meet where the decorative arches were filled with portraits of Variyam Kunnath Kunhahmad Haji and Chembrasseri Thangal, the leaders of the infamous Moplah riots of 1921. </b>These events proved the extent to which the Marxists are dependant on icons of Islamic fundamentalism for their political survival and the lengths to which they would go to mollify communal sentiments.
<b>The Malappuram state conference tried to out shadow the Congress, Muslim League and even Islamic forces in promoting the cause of pan-Islamism</b>. The town - in fact the entire district - was decorated with posters and giant cutouts of Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat. It was <b>difficult to understand what the theme of the conference was: Islamic brotherhood or world revolution</b>. There were even posters and banners with messages and drawings pointing out <b>connections between Islamic fundamentalism and "revolutionary dogma" spun by Marx and Engels.</b> It was clear that the CPI(M) was out to convey the message to Muslims that they would be prepared to perform handstands to impress the Muslims. Quite naturally, the minds of ordinary <b>Malayalees were bombarded by images of Muslim barbarity from the past, particularly the experience of Nadapuram</b>, a Communist stronghold in north Kerala.
<b>The Muslim League, of course, feels justified in keeping Islamist fundamentalism alive and kicking</b>. In the recent district committee meeting held in Malappuram, there were huge billboards depicting E Ahmad, the Minister of State for External Affairs in the Manmohan government, holding the hand of the hardline Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The slogan below the picture read: "Not to be separated but to be closer."
The question which nationalists may find entitled to ask is: Why are foreign mascots used by nationalist claiming political parties? During the first Gulf war, several streets and villages in the Muslim pockets of Kerala were renamed "Saddam Street" and "Saddam village". <b>Political workers, both of the Left and Muslim camps, competed with each other for space in the Islamic vision of a just world order.</b> Massive protest marches were held throughout the state against the US strike in Iraq, and now it's the turn of Iran to be at the centre of that competition.
In the Muslim stronghold of Karuvarakkundu, youths showing support to the Muslim League, with the support of certain office bearers of a mosque committee, have issued a <b>fatwa against Muslims who joined the Communist parties.</b> They had taken out some points from a book written by a West Asia-based Islamic preacher, Yusuf-ul- Khardawi, in which he had criticised Communism. There were issues in the area based on this and <b>fatwas were issued threatening non-burial after death to those Muslims to turned Communist.</b>
Islamic organisations, whether moderate or extremist, are nowadays falling over each other to invite <b>Ul-Khardawi </b>to their conferences and meetings. This can be directly linked to a new phenomenon of inviting Islamic leaders from abroad, especially West Asia, for meetings and conferences organised by almost all Islamic groups. Some office bearers of these organisations told The Pioneer that <b>these people are invited mainly to show them the "progress of the work" conducted by them - either construction of a mosques or an orphanage - with petrodollar donations. </b>In Kozhikode alone, there are organisations which used to collect huge funds from individuals and governments from the Gulf region.
The recent deliberations within the CPI(M) regarding its chief ministerial candidate, VS Achuthanandan, also had its origins in the minority appeasement issue. Achuthanandan was cleverly pushed out from the poll fray. The reason furnished by state leaders before the central committee was that he was "anti-minority" and "anti-development". <b>The Muslim League had also pillored Achuthanandan as being anti-mino</b>rity. If both these statements are read together, one can find some interesting similarities. The CPI(M) has decided to enter the poll fray by projecting Paloli Mohammed Kutty, a veteran leader, as the chief minister candidate. But whether this is a ploy to woo Muslims or based on some genuine superiority over Achuthanandan can only be ascertained after the polls.Â
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