Kasaragod: Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama -- the influential Sunni scholars' body -- will launch a series of projects that will protect the secular democratic country, and help make the religious minority and marginalised communities self-sufficient, said the organisation's General Secretary and Grand Mufti of India Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar.

The All India Sunni Jam-iyyathul Ulama has already initiated coordinated activities with Sunni organisations in various states to meet the stated goals, said Kanthapuram, who is also known by the name Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad.

He was speaking after inaugurating the three-year-long centenary celebration of Samastha Kerala at Kasaragod's Chattanchal on Saturday, December 30.

Samastha will implement its Edu-Project in the grama panchayat wards of Kerala and expand it to the national level, he said.

In four phases, Samastha Kerala will develop 10,000 villages as model villages, and groom 50,000 model leaders, he said. Various projects would be launched to empower women and students, he said.

An action plan will be prepared to free the Muslim community from extreme religious reformation, rationalism, and atheism, he said.

Samastha Kerala would set up headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, he said.

Takes a swing at Salafis and Jamaat-e-Islami
Movements such as Jamaath e-Islami and Salafi have been distorting the tenets of Islam, said Kanthapuram. Samastha Kerala will continue to resist the two organisations as it did in the yesteryears, he said.

Among the basic objectives of Samastha are protecting the Muslim community from internal divisions and combating extremism and communalism in society. "The work Samastha did to achieve these goals paved the way for the empowerment of the Muslim community in Kerala," he said and added that the progress achieved by the Muslim community played a major role in Kerala's high scores in social development indices.

The progress made in religious and secular education in Kerala is the result of Samastha's determination, he said. "Samastha is implementing the Kerala model in other states. The educational and cultural activities being carried out in Kashmir is an example of that," he said.

The movement's main focus for the next three years will be on the expansion of educational and developmental activities in the northern states, he said.

"If we were distracted by the controversies around Samastha, Kerala society or people in other states would have lost out on these benefits," he said.

Kanthapuram said Samastha Kerala's centenary promulgating conference in Kasaragod expressed solidarity with the Palestinians fighting for their homeland and for the protection of Al-Aqsa Mosque and prayed for them.

The six-hour-long conference was attended by 10,000 delegates and thousands of believers.

In the run-up to the centenary year in 2026, Samastha Kerala will celebrate the platinum jubilee (70 years) of Sunni Yuvajana Sangham (SYS) in 2024, 10 years of Muslim Jamaath in 2025, said Kanthapuram.