An inaugural musical at Kerala State School Art Festival depicting Muslims as terrorists has sparked outrage in Kerala, with Muslim bodies calling out Kerala government’s “blatant Islamophobia.”
On inaugural day of festival, the artists staged a visual performance depicting a Muslim man wearing a religious white cap as a terrorist caught by army personnel. The festival, in which more than 10,000 students from across the 14 districts of the State will compete in 239 events on 24 stages, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at a function which was attended by a host of ministers, the Speaker of the Kerala Assembly, as well as MLAs.
“Education minister should apologise,” Firos said.
Kerala government should seek an explanation from the state education department director in the matter, demanded Muhammadali Kinaloor, leader of SYS.
He also took to social media to launch a fresh attack against CPI(M) MLA Thottathil Raveendran, who approved the skit during its rehearsal.
“This is Islamophobia,” he said.
According to Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) Kerala unit, the latest incident is not an isolated one.
“The pro-hindutva stances of the director and the artists are very evident in their social media profiles. Choosing this team for the inaugural ceremony of a very important event in Kerala is very suspicious. Chief Minister keeping mum despite watching the program live is arousing doubts regarding the aims of the program,” SIO state committee said.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia . Read the full story here