KOZHIKODE: Muslim religious scholars and secular writers expressed differently on the recent fatwa by the Hyderabad-based Jamia Nizamia Islamic Seminary on the producer/ director of the film Oru Adaar Love Omar Lulu to withdraw a controversial song ‘Manikya Malaraya Poovi’ from the movie. When the secular writers called the move as nonsensical, as similar to the protests against Padmavat, the religious scholars who believe there is nothing objectionable in the song but the picturisation was ‘vulgar’ with the new-gen actors.
The seminary on Thursday also asked the government to stop the release of the movie as the lyrics "if at all" it has hurt the sentiments of Muslim community. One Zaheer Ali Khan, a businessperson from Farooqnagar in Falaknuma and a few others, approached seminary and obtained the fatwa. Nasser Faizy, state secretary of Sunni Yuvajana Sangham, the youth wing of Samatha, prominent Sunni organisation, told this newspaper that the people who issued the fatwa would not have watched the song.
“There is no doubt that the song is pure and nothing controversial in it,” Faizy said. The fatwa might have been issued without watching the song or without proper understanding of the meaning of the lyrics and we would never go by it.” He, however, said the picturisation of the song was vulgar with the actions of the new-generation lovers, which should have been avoided.
According to scholar and social critic Hameed Chandamangaloor, the protest against Oru Adaar Love can be considered as parallel to the protests against the movie Padmavat. “Once they watch the movie, these protests are likely to end, as what happened to the Karni sena. Is the religion so weak to get shattered after a small criticism? I don’t even see a criticism in the song against Prophet Muhammed or Khadeeja Beevi,” said Mr Chendamangaloor. Writer Myna Umaiban opined that society was leading to a dark age, where freedom of expression is denied on art forms. “Situation has worsened to a state that the communal elements find fault with anything that is creative,” she added.
