MM Akbar a well known Islamic Preacher who was dubbed as Kerala’s Zakir Naik was arrested on Sunday, while he was on route to Qatar. He was nabbed by the immigration officials at Hyderabad’s international airport while he was in transit from Australia, waiting to board a flight to his destination. Akbar the Managing Director of Peace International School based in Kochi was wanted in connection with spreading communal enmity via the textbooks used in his schools.
About a month ago, one Peace International school was shut down by the Kerala government after coming into focus for its communal and Islamist syllabus. Turns out that the school didn’t follow the curriculum prescribed by boards like CBSE or ICSE, but instead used content provided by an “Islamic education institution based in Mumbai” named Burooj Realization.
Some of the objectionable content included a class 2 book containing sections about dealing with non-Muslim friends. The questions in the book included asking students, “why Islam always wins” and “what would they do if one of their friends decided to become a Muslim”.
Akbar currently charged under section 153A of the IPC (Promoting enmity among groups), had a lookout notice issued by the Kerala Police. After being detained he was taken into custody by the Ernakulam (North) Police Station. Akbar was expected to be produced before a District Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Apart from Akbar, three people associated with the book publishers have also been arrested by the police. In 2016, soon after the publishing representatives were arrested, Akbar decided to abscond and supposedly fled to Dubai. Thus the lookout notice was issued with the help of Interpol.
These inflammatory books in question were reportedly distributed to about 13 branches of the Peace International School chain, and it has been claimed that Akbar himself was in charge of the book procurement and setting of the syllabus.
