KOCHI: Marking a shift from the past, four major Sunni organisations in Kerala, burying their differences, shared a common platform here on Sunday against the Waqf Act passed by the Parliament.

Representatives of the EK and AP factions of the Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama, Dakshina Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama, and the Kerala Samsthana Jem-Iyyathul Ulama converged on the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium premises in Kochi.

Syed Ebrahim Khaleel al-Bukhari Thangal attended the meeting, representing the Kanthapuram faction of the Samastha. The meeting has been hailed as an attempt to deal with Muslim issues without the help of political parties.

The organisers suffered a major embarrassment when Dakshina Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama general secretary Thodiyur Muhammad Kunji Moulavi announced that his organisation would not participate in the meeting because IUML state president Panakkad Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal was not invited. However, the representatives of his organisation attended the function, exposing the differences within the outfit.

A Najeeb Moulavi, general secretary of the Kerala Samsthana Jem-Iyyathul Ulama, did not turn up for the function though his name was in the name of speakers. E M Aboobacker Moulavi attended the meeting as a representative of the organisation. Sources said Najeeb Moulavi had a programme in Nadapuram, which was fixed much earlier.

There was some confusion over the attendance of Samastha president Syed Muhammad Jiffiri Muthukoya Thangal amid reports that he had withdrawn at the last minute. However, Thangal inaugurated the conference through a video message. There are allegations that the IUML leadership put pressure on the leaders of the Sunni organisations to stay away from the meeting.

In his address, Jiffiri Thangal strongly criticised the new Waqf Act, describing it as a direct infringement on the religious rights of Muslims to create and manage waqf properties.

Muhammad Taufiq Moulavi, district general secretary of Dakshina Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama, Sunni scholar Shuhaibul Haithami, Samastha mushawara member Umar Faizi Mukkom, Muhammad Kunju Saqafi, Junaid Kadakkal, Basheer Wahhabi Adimali, V H Ali Darimi, and A M Pareed also spoke.