KERALA: Former Naxalite leader and cultural activist TN Joy (65) has embraced Islam to show protest as well as irrelevance of religious intolerance and divisions against the casteism by Hindus against Indian Muslims.
TN Joy confirmed his conversion news on April 13, 2015 by updating his status at Facebook and Twitter. Joy said, “As part of his struggle against casteism, my father gave me the name Joy and I am taking it further. I have taken the name Najmal N Babu,” he said.
He added, “Process is not over. I welcome your comments,” his status said. Joy wished that he should be buried in the premise of Cheraman Masjid at Kodungallur (considered as one of the earliest mosques in the country).
Joy criticised on the Hindus, “After the demolition of Babri Masjid, fascist tail has grown to all Hindus. Muslims in the country are feeling threatened. Joy has not decided to join any Muslim school of thought. “At the time of religious fascism, I am resigning from the religion into which I was born. I dream of a society where such religious conversions are not news,” he said.
Asked if he would undergo the rituals as part of the conversion process, Joy said: “that also can happen, but that can wait.”
Joy was the leader of the Naxalite movement in 1970s and was arrested during Emergency. He was an active presence in many agitations.
