Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama of AP Sunnis, also known as Samastha[4][5][6][7][8] andAP Samastha,[4] is aSunni-Shafi'i Muslim scholarly body inKerala.[9][10][11][4] The council administersShafi'ite mosques, institutes of higher religious learning (the equivalent of north Indianmadrasas) and madrasas (institutions where children receive basicIslamic education) inIndia.[9] There are two organisations known as Samastha, one named afterE. K. Aboobacker Musliyar and the other after KanthapuramA. P. Aboobacker Musliyar, both of which emerged in 1989, due to organisational disagreement in Samastha.[4][12]
Similar to EK Sunnis, a forty-member council also known as the 'mushawara' functions as a high command body of AP Sunnis.[13][14] As of December 2023, the council includes Samastha general secretaryKanthapuram A. P. Aboobacker Musliyar; Samastha president E. Sulaiman Musliar; vice presidents Sayyid Ali Bafaqi Thangal, P. A. Aidrus Musliyar Kollam and K. S. Attakoya Thangal Kumbol;[3] treasurer Kottur Kunjammu Musliyar;[3] secretariesSayyid Ibraheem Khaleel Al Bukhari, Ponmala Abdul Khadir Musliyar and Perod Abdurahman Saqafi.[4]
Traditionally Muslims of Kerala areSunnis, predominantlyShafi'is where around two-thirds of the Muslim population isAP andEK Sunnis, respective Samasthas of which emerged in 1989 due to disagreement in Samastha. The reformist Mujahids, belonging to theSalafi movement, make up around 10 percent of the total Muslim population of Kerala. Though there is presence of groups likeTabligi Jamaat andJamaate Islami, by far the biggest groupings are Sunnis and Mujahids.[9][4][12]
Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama (AP faction),Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama (EK faction),Dakshina Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama and Kerala Samsthana Jem-iyyathul Ulama are different factions of Sunnis inKerala, while Dakshina Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama is the dominant group in the southern part of the state.[15]
Samastha began in 1926 to counterVakkom Moulavi's Kerala Muslim Aikya Sangam[14]—the precursor ofKNM and the wider Mujahid movement. Only traditionalist Sunnis are called Sunnis in Kerala in contrast to the reformist ones. The four different factions ofSunnis inKerala have "almost the same ideology and beliefs". Haris Madani, a young scholar belonging to AP Sunnis, in 2022, said the difference between AP and EK Sunnis is purely organisational whereasHusain Madavoor, a Mujahid leader, considersfiqh to be irrelevant.[9][4][12][15]
Kanthapuram, a leader of AP Sunnis says Sunnis formed an organisation to counter the religiousreformists with the name Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama. But the reformist people had registered the same name. So Sunnis had to add the term "Samastha" to the name of the organisation at the conference held at Kozhikode Town Hall on 26 June 1926.[1]
Kanthapuram further says Samastha was reorganised and went ahead with the interests Samastha had at the time of its formation, when there were attempts to join with thereformists and deviate in Samastha around 1989.[1]
Kanthapuram explains people unitedly supported Samastha after its formation. He also says after the reorganisation in 1989, the Samastha went ahead with strong force, with all policies and ideologies of Samastha all overIndia and outside.[1]
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