By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram
A leading Muslim scholar has condemned violence in the name of Islam.
“The extremists are the enemies of Islam,” Sheikh Abu Bakr Ahmed, popularly known as Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliar, said while condemning the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya.
“Militant groups such as the ISIS are trying to defame a religion that advocates peace and tolerance,” he said at the 60th anniversary of the Sunni Yuvajana Sangham (SYS), the youth wing of the All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama.
He also condemned the slaughtering of children in a school in Pakistan’s Peshawar saying the extremists had actually “put their sword at the basic tenets of Islam.”
Sheikh Ahmed warned the community against covert efforts by some powers in the world to destabilise Arab and Muslim nations.
“Those who nurtured ISIS for their political benefits should be held accountable for the group’s actions,” he added.
The valedictory function of the four-day conference was held on Sunday evening, which also marked the end of a year-long diamond jubilee celebrations of the SYS, after a mammoth rally in the Muslim-dominated Malappuram district of Kerala.
Organisers said more than half a million people had gathered on the specially prepared grounds of paddy fields named Tajul Ulama Nagar in memory of Syed Abdurrahman al-Bukhari, popularly known as Tajul Ulama Ullal Thangal, the former head of the scholars’ body who died last year.
Sultan Mohamed al-Shahi and Sheikh Mahmood Kareeshan were the chief guests at the valedictory conference.
The conference also unveiled an ambitious 10-year action plan aimed at the comprehensive growth of society at all levels, including socio-religious development.
It chalked out nationwide programmes to help the physically challenged, fishermen and farmers.
He announced plans for a common people’s platform, ‘Muslim Jama-ath’, a national newspaper, hostels, hospitals and primary Islamic schools across the country and improving the functioning of its Jamiyathul Hind al-Islamiyya and a Shariah-compliant financial institution.
Shaykh Sayyed Mohamed Yusuf al-Rifae, the chief justice of Kuwait’s Supreme Court, inaugurated the valedictory conference.
