Kerala filmmaker gives up Islam to protest Rawat's death 'celebration'

MALAYALAM film director-turned-politician Ali Akbar, who is also a supporter of India’s Sangh Parivar (family of India’s Hindu nationalist organisations), has announced that he and his wife were giving up Islam in protest against a section of social-media users for allegedly indulging in jubilation of the death of chief of defence staff Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika in a military helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu on December 8.

Akbar, who revealed his decision in a video posted on social media recently, said, “I am not a Muslim from today onwards. I am an Indian.”

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In the clip, he slammed those who put smiley emoticons below the news reports related to the death of Rawat and said he could not stand with the “anti-nationals” anymore.

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Akbar’s decision comes in the wake of a section of members of a minority community reportedly rejoicing the death of the country’s first chief of defence staff who took power less than two years ago.

In October, Akbar resigned from all responsibilities in the Bharatiya Janata Party, including as its state-committee member as he was “pained” by the Kerala unit’s organisational-level action against the saffron party’s state secretary AK Nazeer.

He though said that he would continue as a member of the BJP.

In an emotional post in Facebook, Akbar said it was very difficult for the common man to understand the kind of humiliations being faced by a Muslim from his own family and community, while working for the BJP.

Akbar is currently working on a film based on the Moplah riot (a Malabar rebellion) which took place in northern Kerala a century ago.