Malappuram: The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second-largest constituent of the Opposition UDF, said it was an unforgivable mistake to portray a certain religious group as terrorists in the welcome song and dance performance of the state school youth festival.
Muslim League leader PK Kunjalikutty said that what happened in the dance performance was not carelessness but showed the crooked minds of those who performed it.
He was referring to the musical staged shortly before Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had inaugurated the 61st Kerala School Kalolsavam in Kozhikode on Tuesday.
"It should not have happened. Masks were used to portray terrorists. It is an unforgivable mistake to give that character a Muslim guise," IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty added. Muslim League state president Panakkad Sadiqali Shihab too had said that the dance performance was an unforgivable mistake.
The musical directed by Malayalam Theatrical Heritage & Arts in association with Matha Perambra showed the Indian army apprehending a terrorist who had shot dead a soldier in the initial act. The terrorist was shown as a rifle-wielding man sporting a Keffiyeh (a traditional Arab headgear worn by men).
Samastha Kerala Sunni Yuvajana Samgham (SYS) and former vice-president of the Muslim Students' Federation, Fathima Thahiliya have accused the state government of sanctioning an 'Islamophobic' event at the venue of the youth festival.
Thahiliya, who is also a lawyer, has claimed that CPM MLA Thottathil Ravindran (Kozhikode North) had seen the rehearsal. "It is unsurprising that he did not find the musical to be Islamophobic. He was invited to the BJP by its leader K Surendran," Thahiliya wrote on her Facebook page.
Minister for Education V Sivankutty said the government would investigate.
He said the government would be alert so that such incidents are not repeated in future.
Minister for Tourism and Public Works Mohammed Riyas said that his government or his movement did not endorse the view that any particular religion was responsible for terrorism. "Such propaganda is not acceptable in any way," he said. "The education minister and I come from an movement that has made in unambiguously clear," he said in Kozhikode.
