Title: Keralite
Moulvi to convert to Hinduism
Author: P K Surendran
Publication: The
Times of India
Date: Mar 24,
2000
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Kakkatummal Hassan ``Moulvi'' will become Kamala Hassan as he gets converted
to Hinduism next week.
The first Kerala Muslim
intellectual to change his faith, Hassan, a 30-year-old Sunni Muslim writer
from Palakkad district, has turned away from his faith on the issues of
polygamy and talaaq. He will now edit Desa Nadam, a periodical published
by the Shiv Sena.
Hassan will get converted
and renamed by the Arya Samaj at a function to be held here at the end
of the month. Noted writer Kamala Das had recently converted herself
to Islam.
The Muslim youth has
left his parents and family behind. The family is in Palakode, a village
in Palakkad district. His parents are unhappy with the decision.
His wife's family had already distanced themselves from him for writing
``secular'' articles and questioning polygamy.
Hassan says after schooling,
he had studied Darz for five years to become a Moulvi. But instead
of accepting the job as a Moulvi, he went for a Bible study lasting three
years at a Mangalapuram seminary. He had travelled with Pentecostals,
a Christian fundamentalist sect, and attended several Gospel meetings.
He says he found the basic principles of the Bible attractive but its practioners
unappealing. It was then he turned to Ramayana and Vivekandanda.
``I found polygamy being
practised in Islam. The easy way in which talaaq is being said has
no Koranic backing,'' says Hassan. ``Sura Nisa'' in Koran that dwells
on matrimony, is explicit on the virtues of having a single wife.
The Koran says you can marry twice or thrice, only if you find destitute
women. It was obviously a matter of helping hapless women rather
than granting sexual indulgences to men.'' The male-dominated priesthood
had twisted it to mean a licence for multiple wives, he says.
Those who justify polygamy
argue that Prophet Mohammed had 11 wives. But those were strategic tie-ups
as the Prophet had been founding an empire. ``In Hindu history and
mythology also, one will find kings having several wives and concubines.
But do the Hindus follow this practice in modern life? No,'' says
the acolyte.
Hassan writes about theology
in several Malayalam magazines. His belief that neither was Islam
monotheistic nor Hinduism all pantheism earned him the ire of religious
hawks who more than once thrashed him in public. ``Because of me,
my family - parents and eight brothers and sisters - are troubled.
I, therefore, thought it better to leave them alone and come here.''
According to the Hassan,
Islam's insistence on praying in the direction of the West and selecting
a ``holy spot'' were akin to the Hindus' worship of several idols.
The idols are symbolic, a means to the ultimate truth. He says he
considers Hinduism more as a culture of a people than a religious faith.
``I will oppose injustice
in whatever form. Today, I find women's status under Islam the worst
of all. But the Islamic priesthood does not tolerate criticism and
I thought it better to take shelter where kindness is more palpable, ''
says Hassan as he prepares to embrace Hinduism.