In another case of rising interference of Islamic religious institutions in an individual’s private life, it has been reported that a Mosque committee in Kerala’s Malappuram district ordered a social boycott of a family for carrying out an inter-faith marriage.
As per the report, Madarul Islam Sangham the Mahallu committee (administrative committee) of local mosques situated in Thachinganadam in Keezhattur, decided that they would boycott the family of Kunnummal Yusuf as they had agreed to his daughter’s marriage to a non-Muslim.
In order to ensure that, the mosque also issued a special circular which stated that, Kunnummal Yusuf a member of Mahallu had conducted the marriage of their daughter with a non-Muslim. Thus the committee had decided that people need not cooperate with the family neither in mosque-related affairs nor for any other matter.
Undeterred by such a diktat, the family went ahead with the marriage and the girl married Tiso Thomas on 20th October under the special marriages act. This wedding was also conducted without any religious symbols and religious customs too weren’t followed.
This incident started receiving widespread attention after the girl’s uncle shared the circular and criticised the decision of the Mahallu committee on Facebook. The uncle wrote that the girl had the right to marry anyone of her choice asked the mosque to stop changing the tides of time.
This whole call for boycott seem to have generated mixed results. A day after the marriage, the family had organised a reception where hundreds of people including neighbours turned up and participated enthusiastically. But on the other hand reports claimed that of the 600 odd people invited, none of the Muslim families associated with the Kondiparamba masjid turned up and even a few family members didn’t cooperate with the wedding. The absentees also included the friends of the bride who didn’t attend in fear of the diktat.
As per Najma a CPI(M) area committee member, they are planning to file a police complaint against this boycott call issued by the Mosque committee.