Mollification efforts fail; Samastha-Muslim League feud to worsen amidst crucial Nilambur by-polls

MALAPPURAM: The Muslim League is arduously trying to resolve differences with Samastha before the local body and assembly elections. Meanwhile, Samastha remains firm in its demand to implement Samastha Mushawara's recommendations on the CIC (Coordination of Islamic Colleges) or League state president Panakkad Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal step down from the post of CIC president.

The CIC was formed in 2002 to implement an educational approach that integrates religious and materialist arguments. Since then, the Panakkad Thangal family and all the leaders associated with the League have been at the helm of it. It will not be easy for Sayyid Sadiq Ali to give up the CIC, which has put the reins of religious education in the hands of the League for so long.

Samastha is deeply dissatisfied with the non-implementation of the proposals submitted in December 2023. In the context of the Nilambur by-election, League critics within Samastha are not backing off from making their dissent public.

Last month, Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal expelled Asgar Ali Faizy, a central mushawara member and teacher, from Pattikkadu Jamia Nooriya College for criticizing League leaders.

Although it is a Samastha institution, the president of Jamia is Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal. 39 out of 40 Mushawara members supported the demand to reinstate Asgar Ali Faizy.

In response to his action, Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal was not invited to the Waqf protection conference organized by the Jamiyyathul Ulama Coordination Committee, an organization of Sunni scholars, in Ernakulam on May 4.