by R. SANTHOSH
The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Kerala, convened a press meet in Kozhikode on 21st May 2010 and Arif Ali, the state Ameer made the following statements. “Jamaat-e-Islami has enormous obligation to Abul ala Maududi, as he is the founder of the organisation. At the same time, the organisation is founded neither on his writings nor on his vision. Instead it is founded on Quran and the Hadiths. We wanted to make this clear since a long time and now we are doing it”. Arif Ali’s remarks are of paramount significance as it is for the first time that an office bearer of Jamaat-e-Islami, that too a state Ameer, openly stated that the organisation is not founded on the principles of Abul ala Maududi, its founder and hitherto guiding spirit. By asserting that the organisation is based on Quran and Hadith, and not on the ideas of Maududi, the Ameer was trying to erase the fundamental difference between Jamaat-e-Islami and other Muslim organisations. Later, though other leaders of the organisation tried to clarify that his remarks were misunderstood by the media and indeed Maududi is an important figure for them, the writing on the wall was clear. For the organisation, the founder and his ideology had become a liability, an unsettling ideological baggage that needed to be abandoned or at least covered up properly. The Jamaat-e-Islami had formally decided to do something that its founder would have despised, namely, field its own candidates and enter the political fray in the forthcoming panchayat elections in Kerala. The press meet was convened to make official this decisive moment in the history of Jamaat-e-Islami in Kerala.
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(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)