Islamic pre-schools out of sync with Kerala’s pluralistic culture say Islamic scholars

Kozhikode, July 29: Many within the Muslim community are beginning to raise questions about the motive and excuse for the many Islamic pre-schools that have been mushrooming across the state in the past few years. These pre-schools are modelled along the lines of a normal kindergarten but with an Islamic ambience and curriculum.

According to a report, a section within the community fear that these schools, which are meant exclusively for Muslims kids, are not in tune with the culture of Kerala that is basically pluralistic.

“We need to seriously consider whether we need such schools that prevent kids from interacting with children of different faiths. Such schools seem out of sync with our culture,” said Nizar Olavanna, the state vice president of the Ithihadu Subbanil Mujahideen (ISM), the youth wing of Kerala Nadvathul Mujahidheen (KNM).

He said that the excuse for setting up of such schools is lack of facilities in other schools for Muslim students to practice their religion.

“No one would object giving facilities to Muslim students to offer prayers or attending madrassa. But establishing exclusive schools for Muslims having syllabus of their own is counterproductive,” he said.

“Great Muslims scholars and leader like Vakkom Abdul Khader Moulavi and Muhammad Aburehman were the products of the public education system. Moreover, Kerala will be in peril if other communities also followed the same path,” Nizar said. A discussion on the issue came up at the state executive meeting of KNM held at Kozhikode last week against the background of radicalisation of Muslim youth in Kerala.

The general feeling within the community was that institutions such as these were promoting mistrust among communities.

Mujeeb Rehman Kinaloor, former State president of Ithihadu Shubbanil Mujahideen, also believed that the trend is dangerous for Kerala. “I think that sprouting of such schools has some connections with the emergence of neo-Salafism. I am told that the syllabus of these schools are copy of similar institutions in Egypt,” he said.

“Religion should be imparted to grown-ups who have the capacity to imbibe it and not to kids. Moreover, these schools promote Arabic that is a foreign language in Kerala. These schools will become isolated islands in our society and will block the healthy interaction with different communities,” he said.

The former ISM president also spoke on the need for revamping the syllabus and code of conduct at the Madrassas in tune with the modern times. The messages received from disappeared youths that revealed that they had been associated with an ultra- Salafist organisation which regarded Muslims mingling with other communities un–Islamic and supported a boycott of festivities like Onam.