Soaked in spirit of unity, they celebrate the festival

Onam celebrations with a flower carpet at a madrasa may look outlandish in any other part of the State; but not in Malappuram, a land known for its mutual respect and regard for faiths.

The courtyard of the Noorul Islam Madrasa at Ramapuram Schoolpadi, near here, saw the Onam celebrations two days ago sending a beautiful message to the country that faiths should unite people by rising above parochial interpretations.

The Noorul Islam Madrasa functions as part of the Twaha Masjid at Ramapuram. The masjid and madrasa authorities said they were happy to be part of a festival that could unite human beings rather than divide.

The madrasa has been housing the nursery classes of A.H.L.P. School, Ramapuram, for the past several years because of lack of space in the school.

The little children and their teachers laid a flower carpet in the madrasa courtyard, and found characters of Maveli and Vamanan among themselves. They sang songs of Onam and danced in festive spirit.

School headmaster Venugopal led the celebrations. “For us, there’s nothing new about it. We have grown up in a place where Onam, Vishu, Id and Christmas are all celebrated with equal fervour. When we celebrate Id, my neighbours celebrate Onam. And we cooperate and share with mutual respect and love,” said Fatima Nasrin, a housewife at Ramapuram.

Similar incidents of inter-faith harmony and communal brotherhood have widely been reported from across the district. The massive rescue and relief operations conducted at Nilambur and neighbouring regions following the disastrous floods last month had seen plenty of examples of people keeping aside their faiths to embrace their fellow beings of different faiths.

The State Waqf Board had felicitated the officials of a masjid at Pothukal for allowing the prayer hall to conduct post-mortem of the victims buried alive in a massive landslip at Kavalappara.

Humanity saluted the mosque authorities and the land’s camaraderie when the forensic surgeons from Government Medical College Hospital, Manjeri, did post-mortem of most of the 48 human bodies dug out from the Kavalappara landslip debris at the Pothukal Salafi Juma Masjid.

All but a handful of the Kavalappara victims were non-Muslim.