Murdered neo-convert Anil Faisal’s 13 family members embrace Islam

Malappuram, Jul 25: In November 2016, a group of miscreants belonging to Sangh Parivar had hacked a Hindu-converted-Muslim youth to death with the intention of preventing the spread of Islam in Kerala’s Malappuram district. Now, at least 13 members from his family have accepted Islam.

Anil Kumar alias Faisal (30), who was murdered when he had returned to his hometown on vacation from Saudi Arabia, used to teach Islam to his family members and relatives. The local Sangh Parivar activists had warned him of dire consequence if he failed to return to Hindu dharma.

Faisal’s wife Priya (now Jesni) and three children, all below 10 had embraced Islam a few days before Faisal’s murder. Within a month after the murder, his mother Meenakshi also accepted Islam. In a recent development, Faisal’s two sisters, their five children and a brother-in-law have embraced Islam and started practicing Islamic rituals.

Faisal’s another brother-in-law Vinod is one of the accused in his murder case. Vinod’s wife has divorced him after he was arrested in the murder case.

Faisal, who belonged to an upper-caste Hindu Nair family, accepted Islam while he was in Saudi Arabia Riyadh only after a prolonged study in early 2016. After he came home in August, he began to teach Quran to his family members.

Faisal wasn’t the first one

Family sources said that many years before the conversion of Faisal, his uncle, aunt and their two daughters had embraced Islam. The uncle’s family continues to live in the district.

According to Faisal’s father Krishnan Nair, Faisal became a Muslim by choice. “No one compelled him. It was his decision. But miscreants did not allow him to live,’ says Nair.

Faisal was attacked while he was going to pick up his relatives from Tanur railway station in an auto-rickshaw at Farooq Nagar around 500 metres away from his house in Malappuram district on November 19. He was supposed to fly back to Saudi Arabia the very next day.

Twelve RSS/BJP workers, including Vinod, had been arrested in the murder case. The prime accused Madathil Narayan, 47, has been RSS karya vahak at Tirur in Malappuram. He had been an accused in the murder of another Muslim convert, Yasir, in 1998. It was in July last year that the Supreme Court acquitted him in the case.

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