Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader and a Minister in Keralam, KM Shaji, on Tuesday said there was a growing trend among Muslim girls in the state towards following social media pages promoting atheist ideologies, calling it a “very dangerous trend”. He questioned whether the Muslim community was doing enough to understand, engage with and guide young women as their social and educational horizons expand.
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Shaji, Keralam Minister for Local Self Government, made the remarks while speaking at a discussion organised by the Department of Malayalam at a government college in Kozhikode.
“This is a very dangerous trend. I have said this many times before. Go and look at the pages of atheists in Keralam. The people with the largest number of followers on those pages are Muslim girls,” said Shaji, who is regarded as a prominent leader of the Muslim League in Keralam.
He stressed that he was making the observation seriously and not as a casual remark.
Referring to an earlier observation made during the programme, Shaji said he was not convinced that the changes taking place among Muslim girls could simply be described as “progress”. Instead, he described them as a “leap” and expressed concern over whether the community had fully understood the extent of these changes.
“I don’t know whether what has happened among Muslim girls can simply be described as a ‘progress’. It is more like a leap. I have serious concerns about whether the community has understood how far these girls have come and how much they have grown,” Shaji said.
He questioned whether adequate efforts were being made to understand the concerns of young Muslim women, guide them and channel their growth in a positive direction.
“Someone needs to seriously think about whether we are making adequate efforts to guide these girls, address their concerns and channel their growth in a positive direction,” the minister in the Congress-led government said.
Shaji also questioned whether any Muslim organisation or movement was currently undertaking such an effort.
“But can you point to a Muslim movement today that is guiding the children we have raised with such hope and effort, particularly our girls? Can you identify even one example of a Muslim organisation or movement that is doing this?” he asked.
The IUML leader then referred specifically to atheist social media pages in Keralam and claimed that Muslim girls constituted the largest group of followers of such pages.
Shaji also sought to draw a distinction between how boys and girls, in his view, engage with content and social issues. Referring to reels and other social media content, he said boys might engage with an issue briefly before moving on, whereas girls tended to reflect more deeply and discuss their concerns among themselves.
“But I feel girls do not process things in quite the same way. They reflect more deeply. They discuss things among themselves. Their concerns and questions emerge through those discussions and reflection,” he added.
Shaji also pointed to the increasing number of Muslim girls pursuing medicine and other professional courses, saying these spaces had created greater opportunities for questions, discussions and reflection among young women.
His remarks come amid a broader debate within Kerala‘s Muslim community over changing social attitudes among young people, particularly women, and the influence of social media, higher education and professional exposure on questions of faith, identity and community life.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
