The Karnataka burqa controversy has taken an unprecedented turn, with radical Islamic elements such as the Popular Front of India and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind having taken direct control over the protests. The radical Islamic outfits are now inciting the Muslim girl students to violate the existing uniform guidelines enforced by the state government.
The Muslim students, backed by the PFI and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, are now accused of vitiating the atmosphere in the educational institutions by disobeying the uniform rules and insisting on wearing the Islamic attire of Burqa inside the classroom.
Earlier, a report revealed how 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 counselled Muslim students to orchestrate the Hijab controversy in Karnataka. In the light of events, it was clear that radical Islamic outfits such as CFI and Jamaat were not only attempting to brainwash ordinary Muslim students to display regressive practices in college but also appears that these outfits have been successful in radicalising young Muslims students to stand against the state.
It is pertinent to note that PFI – the parent organisation of the Campus Front of India and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind have often tried their hand in radicalising the Muslim youth, especially in Kerala and Karnataka. The radical Islamic outfit has been less successful in Karnataka comparatively. However, Kerala has become a victim of PFI’s radicalisation drive. It has emerged as the epicentre of radicalisation among Muslim youths, which has resulted in repeated violence against non-Muslims in the state.
PFI, Jamaat being funded for promoting Islam and radicalisation drives in India: Reports
Last year, a Kerala-based journalist had made a sensational disclosure regarding how radical Islamic organisations such as the Popular Front of India and Jamaat-e-Islami are receiving funds to promote Islamism in India. In a Clubhouse discussion, Kerala-based journalist MP Basheer had revealed details about the international funding to advance radical Islam in the country.
In his disclosure, Basheer had said 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 organisation so that they could create awareness and promote Islamic dress code in Kerala and India. He had further stated that Jamaat had objected to certain Muslim women journalists not wearing hijabs and had stated that Basheer should tell them to wear hijabs.
Further, Basheer had revealed 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.
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 not only radical Islamic values but also create communal harmony in the state. It is also evident from the fact that both PFI and Jamaat-e-Islam had become very active in the 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.
Popular Front of India and its links to SIMI and Indian Mujhahideen:
The ongoing Hijab controversy and the role of Campus Front of India, Jamaat-e-Islam, makes us recognise the exact modus operandi used by now banned terror outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the parent organisation of one of the country’s most dreaded terror networks – Indian Mujahideen.
The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was formed in 1977 at Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, initially as a student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH). It is believed that SIMI was established to renew Jamaat-e-Islami’s older student wing, the Students Islamic Organisation (SIO). Incidentally, SIO has been advising the Muslim students in the ongoing Hijab controversy, as per the admission of Muslim students, along with the PFI. However, SIMI split off from the main organisation due to ideological differences.
SIMI, run by the most fundamentalist and extremist students, worked on the ideas of establishing Sharia and governing the country based on the Quran, propagation of Islam and carrying out “Jihad” for the cause of Islam. The banned terror outfit was against the “western ideals” and rejects secularism, democracy and nationalism. It seeks the restoration of the “khilafat” or caliphate and establishes Dar-ul-Islam (Islamic land) in India by converting the populace.
In addition, SIMI sought to emphasise “ummah”, or the Muslim brotherhood and the need for a Jihad to establish the supremacy of Islam. As a result, the SIMI, a student body, transformed itself into a terrorist outfit to fulfil its intended objective. SIMI became active in the country for the next few decades and carried out some of the deadliest terrorist attacks on Indian soil, including the 2006 Mumbai blasts that killed over 209 people.
Subsequently, the Indian government banned the group in 2001 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). Nevertheless, SIMI was active for nearly four decades in the country.
The dreaded organisation SIMI is also considered the parent organisation of Indian Mujahideen. Some analysts suggest that IM split off from SIMI, attracting extremist elements, thus becoming the terrorist wing of SIMI. According to Indian intelligence, the IM had members from the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and terrorists Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI).
Bhatkal, the birthplace of Indian Mujahideen, is just 55 kilometres from Kundapura in the Udupi district, which has become the latest hotspot of the Hijab protests. The dreaded terrorists – Riyaz and Yaseen Bhatkal, hailed from Bhatkal of the Uttara Kannada district, a town often referred to as a ‘terror factory’.
Are PFI and Jamaat-e-Islami following the footsteps of SIMI and Indian Mujahideen?
Popular Front of India, which is now leading the fresh wave of radicalisation in the country, is considered a resurrection of the banned outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). PFI seems to continue the agenda of the terror outfit, perhaps in a new avatar.
The recent events surrounding PFI and Islamic radicalisation in the country, especially in the Southern states, indicates that PFI may have been trying to bring SIMI’s radical Islamic ideas into fruition. By supporting the Hijab protests, the PFI wants to promote the concepts of Sharia instead of following the rules and regulations enforced by a duly elected government that draws legitimacy from the Constitution of India.
Interestingly, the PFI’s former national chairman, Abdul Rehman, was the former national secretary of SIMI, while the organisation’s state secretary, Abdul Hameed, was SIMI’s former state secretary. Most former leaders of SIMI are either identified with PFI and hold various important positions in the radical Islamic organisation. In 2010, the Kerala government had alleged that PFI had direct links with the banned Islamic terrorist organisation Students Islamic Movement of India.
Ever since it was formed in 2006, the radical Islamic outfit – PFI has been under the radar of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as its members were linked to ISIS modules in Kerala that went on to join the terror outfit in Syria and Iraq.
According to Indian intelligence officials, the PFI is also suspected of radicalising the masterminds of the 2019 Sri Lankan Easter bombings that killed over 300 people.
In India, the PFI has been accused of radicalising students and has also been involved in several political killings and religious conversions. According to the NIA, the PFI has a presence in almost 23 states. It is worth mentioning that radical Islamic organisations such as PFI, SDPI and other associated organisations have been under the scanner in UP after the anti-CAA violence triggered in the state last year and this year. In addition, several leaders of the Popular Front of India were also named as accused in the 2020 Bengaluru riots.
PFI members have been frequently found to be indulging in criminal activities, including murder with communal motives. Earlier in January, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had alleged that the PFI raised money through hawala channels for running terror camps in Kerala.
Besides this, it has been accused by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) of being involved in the controversial ‘love jihad’ cases in Kerala. Recently, members of its political arm SDPI were arrested for an ABVP worker’s brutal murder in Kerala’s Kannur.
Recently, PFI members were accused of killing 42-year-old activist Ramalingam. The activist was brutally murdered for opposing forced religious conversions. In the past, the PFI members have been accused of chopping off the hands of a Kerala Professor for allegedly insulting the Islamic Prophet Mohammed. Just a few backs, PFI leader Mohammad Haroon was nabbed by the Kerala Police in connection with the murder of RSS worker Sanjith in Palakkad.
PFI’s aggressive growth in southern states has become a worrying factor, especially in the coastal areas, and the subsequent increase in the radicalisation of Muslim youth is evident in the gradual rise of communal clashes inside the campuses in these areas. The Popular Front of India perhaps assumed that the Hijab controversy would give them more space to radicalise the Muslim youths of this country. However, the counter-protests from civil society and the Hindu students have foiled the plans of PFI.
Going by history, as evident in the Anti-CAA riots in Uttar Pradesh, the PFI may try to stoke more violence on the streets of Karnataka by milking the ongoing Hijab controversy. The state government has to be highly vigilant to prevent any violence in Karnataka and also needs to keep an eye on PFI’s radicalisation drive.
