Kanthapuram’s outreach yatra is gaining momentum ahead of Samastha centenary

Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, a prominent Sunni scholar who heads the Kerala Muslim Jamaat, has attracted a lot of attention during his ongoing Kerala Yatra.

The outreach tour takes place in the run-up to the centenary of the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, the largest and most influential group of traditional Islamic scholars in the state.

Mr Kanthapuram’s yatra, which is being led from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram from January 1 to 16, is in stark contrast to the Samastha Centenary Sandesha Yatra led by Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama president Syed Jifri Muthukoya Thangal, which traveled from Kanyakumari to Mangaluru from December 19 to 28.

Despite health problems, Mr. Kanthapuram has been spreading the message of human love and kindness, creating a buzz on social media.

Kanthapuram has also received praise and support from several Muslim League workers who had once vehemently opposed him. “We have no enemies,” said Karulai Jamal, explaining the arrangements of the yatra.

The Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, better known as the Samastha, will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2026. The organization’s two dominant factions, led by Syed Jifri Muthukoya Thangal and Kanthapuram respectively, commemorate the milestone in different ways, with each organizing large-scale celebrations.

Both factions claim to represent the original Samastha. However, it was Kanthapuram who, along with his followers, left the apex scientific body in 1989, citing concerns over the influence of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and subsequently formed a parallel organization with the same name.

“But ours is the original Samastha, which continues to uphold the principles and objectives for which it was founded,” Mr. Kanthapuram said.

The Samastha was founded in 1926 largely to meet the challenges that reformist and modernist movements pose to traditional Sunni Islam.

The Samastha faction led by Syed Jifri Muthukoya Thangal, which currently has a strained relationship with the IUML, will celebrate its centenary at Kuniya in Kasaragod from February 4 to 8. In contrast, the Kanthapuram group will announce its plans for the centenary celebrations at the end of Mr Kanthapuram’s ongoing yatra in Thiruvananthapuram on January 16.

During the yatra, he will be supported by Syed Ibrahim Khaleel Bukhari, general secretary of Kerala Muslim Jamat, and secretary Perodu Abdurahman Saqafi.