Maktoob media – a propaganda portal with a rich history of propagating Islamic propaganda and Hinduphobic content on social media platforms, seems to have a Congress party connection to it. The OpInida investigation into the Islamist portal’s history has revealed that the portal’s social media pages were once either handled by the Congress party’s social media cell or the main page acted as former Congress IT cell head’s ‘fan page’. Here is what we know:
Maktoob Media
According to Maktoob media’s website, Maktoob is an ‘independent’ media initiative founded in Delhi in 2014 by two Kerala-based journalists, Aslah Kayyalakkath and Naseel Voici. However, the social media pages of the Maktoob media once were Congress leader’s fan page.
The OpIndia investigation has revealed that the Maktoob media’s Facebook page may have been created by the supporters of the Congress party in 2017. When we looked into the history of the Maktoob media’s Facebook, it came to light that one of the fan pages of erstwhile Congress leaders, managed by the Congress IT cell, was rebranded as Maktoob media.
The Facebook page of Maktoob media was started as “Ramya Spandana Fanc”, a fan page account that was created on October 17, 2017. The fan account is dedicated to former Congress leader and social media head Divya Spandana, who is also known as Ramya.
It is interesting to know that former actress Divya Spandana was the head of the Congress party’s social media cell in 2017. It is not yet clear whether the Congress IT cell had created this Facebook page as a propaganda tool to boost actress-turned-politician Divya Spandana’s popularity. But, later, it turned into to full-fledged Islamic propaganda site.
Later, the page was renamed “Ramya Spandana – Fans page”.
Interestingly, seven months later, the page transformed itself into Ramya Maktoob Media in June 2018. Again, a few days later, Facebook, seemingly run by Congress supporters, changed its avatar by renaming itself Maktoob Media 2.
The Facebook page presumably ran by the Congress IT cell to boost the image of a former politician had now become a full-fledged news website. Finally, in September 2018, the Divya Spandana fan page renamed itself “Maktoob media”, a website dedicated to peddling Islamist propaganda.
Maktoob media – from being a Congress IT cell page to an Islamist propaganda site
Ever since then, Maktoob media transformed itself into a ‘neutral-secular media’ from being a Congress IT cell, it has been a full-time Islamic propaganda website propagating false claims against Hindus. The page has been caught several times peddling fake news in the last few years to not only absolve crimes committed by Muslim criminals in the country but also portray that Muslims in India are victims of hatred and violence.
In June last year, the Kerala-based portal was caught propagating lies connected to the Loni incident. The portal had shared an edited out video of an elderly Muslim man from Loni in Uttar Pradesh being beaten up by a few individuals. However, the Islamist portal had given the crime a communal colour by saying that he was beaten for refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. The Ghaziabad police had clarified that there was no communal angle in the incident.
In fact, it was later revealed that some people who allegedly beat him up were also Muslims and they did so after a ‘taveez’ (amulet), he had made for someone did not work. Despite the clarification, the Islamist portal had continued to peddle lies regarding the Loni incident.
Not only that, during the anti-CAA riots, Maktoob media had selectively shared videos to misinform the public about attacks on students inside the Jamia Millia campus.
At 1:30 AM on 16th February 2020, a Twitter account by the name of ‘Jamia Coordination Committee’ (JCC) (now deleted) tweeted an ‘exclusive CCTV footage’ from the reading hall in Jamia Millia Islamia university. The carefully edited video shared by JCC was soon used by anti-BJP ecosystem including journalists to claim police brutality. Jamia has provided footage to MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development), NHRC (National Human Rights Commission), Delhi Police, internal fact-finding team as well as Jamia’s Teachers’ Association. Sources in Jamia say that the CCTV footage was also given to certain individuals who had reportedly sustained injuries and wanted to take up legal proceedings. They were given footage on condition that they will use this footage for legal proceedings only.
Later, another video surfaced which was an ‘exclusive footage’ obtained by Maktoob Media. Maktoob Media claimed it had an hour-long footage, but chose to release only about 5 minute clipped version.
Back then, on its website it mentioned it is based in Delhi. It mentioned “Shaheen Abdulla” as its Associate Creative Editor in its “About Us” section. Who was Shaheen Abdulla? Shaheen Abdulla was the same person who was ‘saved’ by the “Jamia Sheroes” who were hailed by controversial journalist Barkha Dutt. Husband of Aysha Renna, one of the “Sheroes”, Afsal Rahman, has also worked with Maktoob Media. As per his LinkedIn profile, he was associated with Maktoob till September 2019.
Shaheen, Ladeeda and Aysha – all three hail from Kerala where Maktoob Media is based out of. Ladeeda’s husband, Shiyas Perumathura, is Secretary of Students Islamic Organisation (SIO), Kerala. Mumbai chief of SIO, Salman Ahmed, was detained by Mumbai Police for making provocative statement during an anti-CAA gathering in Nanded, Maharashtra.
Students Islamic Organisation
The SIO was founded by Jamaat-e-Islami in 1982 after the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) broke away from it in 1981. A Livemint report from 2008 puts the relationship between the two organizations in this manner, “Blood brothers they may be, but the groups have charted conflicting courses, both in principle and actions. While SIMI is largely underground after the government crackdown, SIO is a gradually swelling student revolution in the making, taking Islam beyond the parodied stereotypes of fundamentalism and violence. Its mission: to prepare students, Muslims and non-Muslims, for reconstruction of a peaceful India on the basis of Islamic principles.”
Regardless of what the report may say, the people associated with SIO have clearly demonstrated that they have a tendency to gravitate towards violence as well. The mainstream media through its ignorance has given a pass to extremely toxic individuals. Due to their inherent ‘secular’ biases, journalists have taken dubious individuals at face value and have made no effort to throw hard questions at them. Even when their bigotry stood exposed, the media has attempted to provide them with an opportunity to clear their names.
The Jamaat-e-Islami itself has an extremely turbulent past. After the partition of the country, the organization split itself into independent organizations in the newly created states. It has been described as having undergone an “ideological transformation” and said to have abandoned its goal of transforming India into an Islamic State. But given everything that has occurred in recent times, we will have to revisit this question.
Pro-Congress posts on Maktoob Media
Besides putting misinformation on social media platforms, the Islamist propaganda website has also been promoting the Congress party and its leader Rahul Gandhi on social media sites. On its Facebook page, Maktoob media has put up several advertisements regarding pro-Congress posts.
Here is an ad put by Maktoob media which promotes Rahul Gandhi. Facebook had published a paid ad of Maktoob in which it had glorified Rahul Gandhi.
In another ad, Maktoob media had carried out campaigning for Rahul Gandhi by referring to him as a PM candidate.
Similarly, ahead of the 2019 elections, Maktoob had put up another paid ad on April 21, 2019, mocking Prime Minister Modi. In the ad, Maktoob media had referred to PM Modi as ‘Steal Jobs’, a popular meme that was also simultaneously shared by the Congress party on social media platforms in the run-up to the 2019 elections.
From being a fan page of a former small-time Congress leader to transforming itself to an Islamist website propagating fake narratives, Maktoob Media has come a long way.
