Last year in a random clubhouse conversation, a Kerala-based journalist had revealed how certain radical Islamic organisations and global Islamic movements have been covertly devising a sinister plot to Islamise India by funnelling a considerable amount of resources from the Middle-east.
Senior Malayalam journalist MP Basheer, the former editorial head of the now-defunct news outlet – Indiavision, had revealed details about the international funding to advance radical Islam in the country. In the discussion, Basheer had told that radical Islamic organisations such as the Popular Front of India and Jamaat-e-Islami were given the responsibility, and huge funds were being routed to them to promote Islamism in India.
Basheer had said that T Arif Ali, secretary-general of the radical Islamic organisation Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, had told him that he had accessed a letter written by Jamaat-e-Islami requesting the King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia to increase the financial grant to the radical Islamic organisations so that they could create awareness and promote the Islamic dress code in Kerala and India.
The most scathing disclosure made by Basheer was that Jamaat-e-Islami had started a project in India to promote the Islamic dress code for women and had access to funds from King Abdul Aziz University, an Islamic university in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
One year down the line, the very same organisation that Basheer accused of collaborating with the global vested interests have now been linked to the ongoing hijab protests that have turned violent in many parts of the country. The hijab protests that started at a local level have now engulfed almost every part of the country, with Muslim mobs even resorting to violence against Hindu students and civilians for demanding the state to adhere to secular values of the Constitution.
PFI and Jamaat-e-Islam, Saudi funds and Hijab protests:
Several reports indicate clear evidence of the involvement of radical Islamic organisations such as the Popular Front of India and Jamaat-e-Islami in orchestrating the hijab protests. Both PFI and Jamaat-e-Islam have become very active in recent weeks, which suggests that a meticulous plan had been hatched to instigate Muslim students in the coastal districts of Udupi, Dakshina Kannada to create further chaos that can be eventually used to radicalise and recruit young Muslims into their organisation.
Recently, a report revealed the notorious radical Islamic outfit Campus Front of India (CFI) – the student wing of Popular Front of India and banned radical terror outfit Jamaat-e-Islami Hind had counselled Muslim students to orchestrate the hijab controversy in Karnataka. This comes at the backdrop of the repeated instances of PFI – the parent organisation of the Campus Front of India and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind attempting to radicalise the Muslim youth, especially in Kerala and Karnataka.
In fact, the Women’s Government Pre-University College in Udupi, the epicentre of the burqa protests, has become a hub for PFI to carry out its communal political events, especially over the last year. It is being said the current protests have their origins in a protest that was organised by the ABVP in October 2021, in which the Muslim students of the college, who are now spearheading the Hijab protest, had also participated.
It is not a coincidence that Muskan Zainab, the burqa-clad protestor who rose to fame during the hijab protests in Karnataka through one well-planned video that was made viral, has links to the radical Islamic organisation PFI through her father. Not just her, two of the five others have close ties with the radical Islamic outfit, indicating that the hijab protests are a very well thought out agenda to rake up communal issues in the sensitive coastal areas of the southern states.
Abdul Sukoor, the father of Muskan Zainab and also the PFI leader, has revealed in an interview that the radical organisation had approached parents of some of the protests with the offer to help take on the college management in October itself over the hijab issue.
It is important to note that Yashpal Suvarna, the Vice President of the College Development Committee, had said that only six Muslim students out of the 150 Muslims studying in the college had issues with the hijab. Incidentally, the six protesting girls are the ones who were influenced by PFI, as per their own admission.
Rudre Gowda, the college principal, has also disclosed, “For years, students have been wearing hijabs while coming to college, but they are required to remove it inside the classrooms as per the college dress code. These girls, too, were following these rules. But, since December, they started demanding that hijab should be allowed during classes too.”
The hijab row at a local college in Udupi quickly escalated and led to a standoff between the families of six Muslim students and the college management. The PFI and Jamaat-e-Islami had propped up these six students to stand up against the college authorities on the issue of hijab, thus effectively implementing its sinister idea of promoting Islam in the states.
In addition, an investigative report by activist Vijay Patel revealed how radical groups and the left-liberal media had exploited the hijab controversy in Udupi, Karnataka, to spread their venomous anti-India propaganda. The activist had disclosed that the groundwork began in September 2021, when Campus Front of India (CFI), the notorious student arm of the extremist Islamist organisation Popular Front of India, started its membership drive in colleges including Udupi.
Hijab protests – a strategic move by the radical Islamic organisations to polarise and recruit young Muslims
The hijab protests are now being seen as a strategic move by the PFI and Jamaat-e-Hind to recruit young Muslims into the movement. By picking up trivial issues of hijab, the PFI has been relatively successful in catching them young and radicalising these students. The hijab – a piece of cloth has given momentum to the radical groups pushing theocratic ideas of Islam in society.
The coastal areas, especially in Kerala and Karnataka, have become the hotbed for radicalisation. The downfall of the Congress party and the rise of SDPI has given ample space for radical Islamists to brainwash Muslim youths. The rise of PFI in these years is also fuelled by the massive influx of funds, especially from the rich middle-eastern countries.
The incidents in the last few days in Karnataka indicate a clear direction that the global vested interests have joined hands with the radical Islamic organisations to promote radical Islamic values and create communal disharmony in the state.
With resources in place, the PFI and Jamaat-e-Islami are now slowly executing their plans to recruit and mobilise more youths so that they can promote Islam in these areas. For them, the hijab controversy has given a golden opportunity to polarise the debate, paving the way for more radicalisation by driving the fear of discrimination among Muslim youth.
