Kerala: MLA MK Muneer gets death threat letter for Facebook post against the Taliban

Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MLA MK Muneer received an anonymous threat letter on Wednesday which asked him to take down his anti-Taliban posts or face repercussions. The threat letter, which was titled "Taliban - a wonder", said that it was hurting Muslim sentiments in general.

Muneer, who is also an ex-minister, was additionally warned of a similar fate to Kerala professor TJ Joseph, who had his palms chopped off by radical groups in 2010. Muneer was asked to either delete his posts and issue an apology in the next 24 hours or watch himself get executed along with his family. Muneer had strictly suggested that he would not be deleting the posts and would also not compromise on his stand against terrorism or any such outfits that supported similar thoughts.

What did the letter read?

The letter was posted from the Government Medical College area and upon receiving it, the MLA filed a complaint on the people who wrote the letter and sought an investigation into the matter. The letter accused the Muslim leader of being Anti-Muslim and an RSS sympathiser.

The letter also pointed out Muneer attending a Shiv Sena function and a book launch ceremony hosted by BJP leader Sreedharan Pillai. According to the letter, The MLA's actions shows that he believed in RSS ideologies. 

Muneer had refused to take down his Facebook posts and held his stand against terrorism and extremism. He said,

"From the day I had posted in FB supporting the ordinary Afghanistan citizen and against the Taliban, they are behind my life. Everyone has been watching their reactions for quite some time now. Such fundamentalists elements are existing in our society even though they are a minority. They don't understand the repercussions of these acts where they support the Taliban while living in this country."

Previous social media episodes involving Taliban content 

On August 21, fourteen people were arrested across Assam for alleged social media posts supporting the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Speaking on the arrests, CM Himanta Biswa said,

"I am happy that even Assam's Muslim community has supported these arrests. Many people are on the watchlist. We have counselled some people and they have deleted their posts. We have only arrested those who showed violent intent in their posts."

The accused were booked under several sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, IT Act, and CrPC.

Facebook bans Taliban-related content

Earlier, Facebook had confirmed that it will continue to ban Taliban content from its platforms as it considers the group to be a terrorist organization. The company has a dedicated team of Afghan experts to monitor and remove content linked to the group. A Facebook spokesperson told BBC,

"The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under US law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organisation policies. This means we remove accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibit praise, support, and representation of them."

Image Credits - Twitter/RepublicWorld