In the last few days events that could upset the Muslim community in Kerala happened in quick succession.

In the fag end of April, from April 27 to May 1, Kerala's version of the Haridwar Dharma Sansad, the Ananthapuri Hindu Maha Sammelan, was held in Thiruvananthapuram. Right wing Hindu speakers, attired not in the saffron robes of the likes of Yati Narasighanand but in formals like any office- or temple-goer, made far-fetched and unverified claims about the motivations of the Muslim community in Kerala.

P C George, for instance, said Muslim hoteliers mixed their dishes with a few drops of a special concotion that would render their non-Muslim clients impotent. The claims were so frivolous that they were largely ignored.

Then on May 5, the High Court, while turning down a writ petition of RSS worker Sanjith's widow to hand over the investigation into her husband's murder to the CBI, made a serious observation. "No doubt, SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India) and PFI (Popular Front of India) are extremist organisations indulging in serious acts of violence," the High Court said.

There was an attempt by right-wing groups, especially using social media patforms, to make it seem as if the High Court had indicted the whole of the Muslim community. Since Kerala's collective secular conscience was aware that only an insignificant slice of Muslims are enamoured by extremist thoughts, like in any religion, this too did not make much of an impact.

However, on May 7, a top Muslim cleric of Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama swelled up in anger during an award distribution ceremony organised by a 'madrassa' in Malappuram. He was enraged that a 15-year-old girl was invited to the stage, where only senior men were present, to collect her prize.

A defence shy of modernity

Later, on May 14, Samastha justified the cleric's action saying he was only adhering to laws laid down by the Prophet. The justification offered by Jem-iyyathul Ulama president Jiffri Muthukoya Thangal sounded more backward than the original act.

"When this girl came on stage, Abdulla Musaliar (the offended cleric) observed that she was bashful ('lajja') in front of the learned men on stage. It is known that girls are generally bashful. Fearing that other girls too would feel such discomfort, he told the organisers not to allow girls to come on stage. He was only trying to lessen their distress and not to insult them," Jiffri Thangal said at a press conference.

Later, at the same press interaction, he made another remark. "Bashfulness is not something that needs to be taken out. It is a necessary trait," the Samastha president said. M T Abdulla Musaliar, during the very same media interaction organised to defend his action, said: "We have also realised that there are many advantages in keeping grown up girls from public events."

Prehistoric yet relevant

The thinking is clearly outdated. "It was clear from the press conference that these clerics simply did not have the wisdom or intellect to handle the issue. Who in Kerala is going to believe that educated girls are shy to accept prizes from adult men. It is just a reflection of the IQ of these men," said poet and writer Shihabuddin Poythumkadavu.

Though they might mouth what thinkers like Shihabuddin say are obsolete ideas, there is a growing feeling in the Muslim community that Samastha's clerics could fuel what the Hindu Maha Sammelan failed to: Islamophobia. Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama is no fringe organisation, like the PFI of Jamaat-e-Islami. It is the largest collective of Muslim scholars in Kerala.

"Samastha's stand can create the impression that Muslims are highly primitive and uncivilised," said social critic Hameed Chennamangalur. Fact is, even the mujahid and Jamaat-e-Islami factions, reformist movements within the community that the Samastha ironically considers too extreme, have become modern in their outlook when it comes to the rights of women.

"These groups have abandoned their ban on women attending public events some 20 to 30 years before. These groups have loosened up in tune with the times," Chennamangalur said.

Relevance of Samastha

Noted Islamic historian Ashraf Kadakkal, on the other hand, felt that even Samastha had reformed itself over the years. The latest incident, he said, was a contradiction. "Samastha was once against education for girls, and stood for early marriage. But now it runs more than 30 higher education institutions for girls, including engineering and BEd colleges," Kadakkal said.

The Malappuram decree of the Samastha leader is like taking a million steps backward. "This will only help to intensify ways to spread Islamophobia," he said.

Though highly orthodox, what made Samastha endearing to Muslim thinkers like Kadakkal was its sustained and uncompromisng belief in communal harmony. "This is a group unblemished by the scar of communalism. They have vehemently opposed any extremist tendencies within the community," Kadakkal said.

Madrassa stage vs Mecca's Kaaba

However, he felt that the new generation was getting increasingly alienated from the old guard. "The leaders seem to exist in some place above the earth. Their life is stuck around holy texts. Many of them don't even read newspapers and they are unaware of the changing and more advanced interpretations of religious texts. No wonder these men are blind to the social impact of their primitive utterances," Kadakkal said.

Jamaat-e-Islami general secretary V T Abullakutty Thangal calls Abdulla Musaliar's stage ban for girls "utter foolishness". "If they adhere to established Koranic principles, there is nothing in Islam to prevent women from sharing public space with men," Abdullakutty Thangal said.

The finest example is Haj, he said. "You just have to look at the teeming millions that circle the Kaaba at Mecca. (Kaaba is the high cube structure at the center of Islam's most important mosque, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.) Men and women, irrespective of country, age, colour and gender, mix without hindrance and carry out their rituals," he said, and added: "What can be more foolish than to say that such a religion prohibits little girls from getting on to a stage to collect a prize. If this man calls himself a scholar, then he is woefully ignorant of the basics of Islam."

Samastha's action will have a lone beneficiary. "Its un-Islamic act has offered a weapon to those attempting to destroy communal peace in Kerala," Thangal said. Shihabuddin put it in business terms: "What Samastha has credited in the name of Muslims will be encashed by the Sangh Parivar."

Taliban connection

Chennamangalur pointed out a disconcerting coincidence. "The day (May 7) the Samastha cleric banned girls from public platforms was also the day the Taliban announced the harshest ever dress code for women in Afghanistan," he said. On May 7, the Taliban's Vice and Virtue Ministry has ordered that women should stay at home and, if at all they venture out, it has to be in a loose and opaque head-to-toe hijab whose only opening will be for the eyes.

"Samastha will find it hard to enforce their will on Muslims in Kerala the way the Taliban could in Afghanistan. But the perspective is the same. Both here and in Afghanistan, it is the male version of Islam that is being imposed," he said.