Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Kerala Islamic leader Aboobacker Musliyar says fitness programs where men and women work out together are ‘haram’

On 21st January, Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar, a well-known Islamic preacher from Kerala objected to popular physical fitness program Multi-Exercise Combination (MEC-7), claiming it was “against Islamic norms.” Notably, he is known for supporting Communist Party of India (Marxist). He stated, “Now, in the name of exercise, a project has begun, and it is present in every town and village.”

“When we enquire about what we see, it is that there is an intermingling of men and women. Not just that, women are exposing their bodies and doing this exercise. The programme has even abolished the thought that men and women seeing one another is haram (forbidden),” Aboobacker alleged and charged that when he brings up these issues, critics call him outdated. “Those who turn against it (MEC-7) are being criticised as people with no exposure. When we say this, the question is: isn’t this good? Isn’t exercise good? They abuse us Musaliyars by saying we have not understood the world.” He is the general secretary of All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama and head of the powerful Sunni faction AP Group.

Notably, the MEC-7 initiative has been surrounded in controversies. A CPI(M) senior expressed concern about the same in last October, voicing that the fundamentalists was exploiting it as a cover for their campaign for an Islamic nation. P Mohanan, the district secretary for the CPI(M) in Kozhikode, asserted that Jamaat-e-Islami was doing physical training sessions in several places with support from the outlawed PFI (Popular Front of India). Later, P Mohanan claimed that neither he nor the CPI(M) had mentioned MEC-7, adding that his comments should not be misunderstood and it was only a warning against religious extremists infiltrating public areas.