Slanging match on over IS links in Kerala

Kozhikode: The missing of youth and their suspected IS connection have become a bone of contention between two Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen (KNM) factions.

The issue came into the open on Wednesday with the breakaway faction led by Hussain Madavoor accusing the youth wing of parent KNM of holding extreme spiritual views.

The Madavoor faction president C.P. Ummer Sullami alleged that those who were on the ad hoc committee of Ittihadul Shubbanil Mujahideen (ISM), the youth wing of KNM, are now the representatives of spiritual extremism.

“KNM was split in 2002 due to the ideological shift and ISM was dispersed. Then the parent body formed an ad hoc committee of ISM, and its members now hold radical Salafi views,” he alleged.

He added that the reason for the split was carrying out a host of activities blamed as ‘ideological shift’.

“Environment protection, pain and palliative, religious harmony meetings and other socio-cultural activities involving all religious people were branded as ideological shift, and it caused the split,” the Sullami elaborated.

But KNM (official faction) state president T.P. Abdulla Koya Madani dismissed all the allegations.

“The claim that we caused the spread of extremist views is baseless and highly condemnable. The 2002 split was not due to any ideological differences but purely organisational,” he told DC.

He said the environmental and other relief activities are welcome to every man irrespective of religion, and it is unfortunate that the Madavoor faction is citing such trivial reasons.

“A few persons were fired due to their anti-organisational activities. Some others joined them, and they floated the other faction. The split has nothing to do with ideology,” he clarified.

The official camp stressed that they would not blame any Mujahid (Salafi) groups responsible for youth indoctrination without any evidence. Both the prominent groups affirm that Islam has nothing to do with violence.