Onam and Islamic Preachers

Onam () is an annual Indian harvest festival celebrated predominantly by the Hindus of Kerala. A major annual event for Keralites, it is the official festival of the state and includes a spectrum of cultural events.
Various sections of Islam have raised concerns about the celebration of Onam by Muslims. However many Muslims observe Onam anyway, considering its celebrations and rituals as a cultural practice.
Islamic groupings in Kerala
Denominations
There are different denominations of Muslims in Kerala. Traditionally Muslims of Kerala are Sunnis, predominantly where around two-thirds of the Muslim population is AP and EK Sunnis, respective Samasthas of which emerged in 1989 due to disagreement in Samastha, an organization began in 1926 to counter the Vakkam Moulavi's Aikya Sangam (1922-1934)—the precursor of KNM (founded in 1950) and the wider Mujahid movement. Only traditionalist Sunnis are called Sunnis in Kerala in contrast to the reformist ones. The reformist Mujahids, belonging to the Salafi movement, make up around 10 percent of the total Muslim population of Kerala. The Shia population in Kerala is less than five thousand in number. Though there is presence of groups like Tabligi Jamaat and Jamaate Islami, by far biggest groupings are Sunnis and Mujahids.
Salafi Mijahid's KNM was split into three after 2000, two of them, one led by T. P. Abdulla Koya Madani and the other by Hussain Madavoor, merged in 2016 both of which had a mutual split in 2002. The one that did not participate in the merging is Wisdom Global Islamic Mission. Before this merging the Mujahid movement had split into at least five groups.
Ideological difference
The four different factions of Sunnis in Kerala 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 whereas Husain Madavoor, a Mujahid Salafi leader, considers to be irrelevant.
AP Sunnis
Ponmala Abdul Qadir Musliyar, secretary of Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama of AP Sunnis quotes the Ibn Hajar's view on Muslims participating in the celebration and non-celebratory activity exclusive to non-Muslims:
Musliyar says that this Ibn Hajar's view itself is the ruling when a Muslim does something only done by non-Muslims and that the same applies to Muslims preparing special food on the festival day of non-Muslims. He also says that a Muslim would become a murthad (apostate) for lighting the nilavilak as a Hindu custom and that if Hindus' customs like lighting the nilavilak is done as an Indian custom, though the person does not become a murthad, it is still forbidden and sinful. Musliyar applies the same ruling on both lighting the nilavilak on public functions and breaking the coconut on public functions and adds that it is karahath to do them unintentionally (without having the intention of being similar to non-Muslims or participating in it at all). He says that lighting the nilavilak is not an Indian tradition and that inaugurating public functions by breaking the coconut or by the carrying of thalappoli is a Hindu custom and thus sinful. affiliated to Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama of EK Sunnis, caused controversy over his statement that Muslims should not celebrate the festivals of other religions like Onam.
In 2016, a group of leaders from different organisations of EK Sunnis such as Sunni Mahal Federation, Samastha Kerala Jam-iyyathul Muallimeen, Sunni Yuvajana Sangham (SYS) and SKSSF has, in a joint statement, said that Islam forbids the following of rituals from other faiths.
Mujahids
A section of, Mujahids belonging to the Salafi movement, has opposed celebration of Onam and Christmas by Muslims. Muslim reformists have called on other Muslims to refrain from taking part in the festival. For example, a Kerala-based Mujahid Salafi preacher Shamsudheen Palath has called Onam as haram (wrong and forbidden).
Muslims and Onam celebration
According to P.S. Salini, a research scholar in Islamic studies, most Muslims join the festivities with their friends and celebrate "Hindu festivals such as Onam". According to a 2001 chapter by Filippo Osella and Caroline Osella, both Hindus and non-Hindus have celebrated Onam equally "as a time when the unity of the family and kin group is particularly emphasized". In another 2008 paper, Osella and Osella states that "Onam is not celebrated by Muslims" and the Muslims who do prepare an Onam feast have an air of a "daring secret".
Some Muslim Indian politicians light a traditional vilakku (oil lamp), while others have refused to light such a lamp at Onam events declaring it to be a Hindu tradition and against the teachings of Islam. Muslim daily newspapers and other publications have condemned Muslim ministers who participate in Onam traditions.

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