Kozhikode: Muslim League state general secretary P M A Salam on Saturday courted controversy with his remarks against the transgender community.
Speaking at a delegation held as part of the Muslim League district conference in Kozhikode, Salam opined that being transgender is a 'false mentality'. "Islam does not recognise the existence of any other gender other than male and female. Our religion also does not accept any marriage that is not between a 'natural' man and woman," said Salam.
He further said what a travesty it was to call for gender neutrality in society. "Islam does not encourage or teach the existence of another gender other than male or female. Even in the Quran, only men and women have been addressed and not a third gender," said Salam.
In a veiled, but apparent reference to Ziya Paval and Zahad, the first transgender couple in the country to successfully give birth, Salam said: "Recently, a woman claimed that she is a man. This is a mindset. Some parts of her body were removed through surgery, which was completely unnecessary. And her argument was that she is a man. Then she went and married another man who is pretending to be a woman. However, it is the woman who said she is a man that gave birth. People should remember that even if they remove their parts on the outside, it won't change what is on the inside. This incident happened in Kerala."
He also took a jibe at the media, political parties and liberals for celebrating the event.
"A similar incident happened in Europe. A man there claimed that he identified as a woman. One day, he was arrested for a crime. However, he demanded that he be incarcerated in a women's jail as he identified as one. So, he was imprisoned with four women. A year later, three of the women inmates gave birth to his children," said Salam, using the story to reiterate his opinion that all this is a false mentality.
"Those who oppose such thinking are stamped regressive and termed conservatives in society today. The so-called liberals come up with their false claims and create division among people, and then call it progress. Youth parties like the SFI (CPM's student wing) are trying to recruit students across campuses by preaching freedom of sexuality and pushing drugs," said Salam.
The majority of the accused in drug cases in the state are either members of the SFI or DYFI, he added.
