Preacher M M Akbar denies indoctrination

Kozhikode: Islamic preacher and director of 'Niche of Truth', the body which introduce Islam to non-Muslims, M.M. Akbar has said that his movement was not into propagation of Islam which supports IS version and had no role in the indoctrination of the missed persons from Kerala who were suspected to have joined IS. In an exclusive telephonic interview to DC from Qatar, he said that Abdulla Rashid, the Thrikaripur native, who was said to be the key indoctrinator among the missing persons worked with 'Peace International School' as a trainer.

"He trained our teachers in science and mathematics for three years. Rashid is basically an engineer and was adept as a trainer.He used to travel to all our schools across Kerala and train teachers. His wife Ayisha (formerly Sonia Sebastian) was a teacher at our school in Thrikaripur," Mr Akbar elaborated.
Rashid and Ayisha resigned in last May, saying that they had to go to Sri Lanka to attend religious classes under an Islamic scholar.

M.M Akbar is also the Managing Director of Peace educational foundation which runs 13 schools across the state, of them 10 directly. "We have no other connection with any of these missing persons," he asserted. On 'Niche of Truth', Mr Akbar said that the body had no connection with any Islamic organizations in Kerala.

"The purpose is to introduce Islam to non-Muslims. Ideologically we are following Salafism," he said. Mr Akbar said that his organization would only act as a guide to those non-Muslims who want to convert to Islam. "There are two approved conversion centres-in Kozhikode and in Ponnani. If any non-Muslim wants to join Islam we would direct them to these centres but no other support is extended," he said.

Mr Akbar said that police had not inspected or verified the credentials of his movement so far. But Yasar Arafath, the Kozhikode coordinator of the movement, told DC that special branch had inspected records in the wake of conversion incidents in the past.