Tablighi Jamaat is an Islamic revivalist group that has been linked to jihad terrorist. San Bernardino jihad mass murderer Syed Rizwan Farook was involved with Tablighi Jamaat. It’s unclear, however, whether this heralds genuine reform in Saudi Arabia or is simply the elimination of a rival locus of loyalty.
“Muslim bodies say Saudi’s statement against Tablighi Jamaat ‘unjust,’” by Vasudha Venugopal, Economic Times, December 12, 2021:
Muslim organisations have termed Saudi Arabia’s decision to reiterate its ban on India-based Islamic movement Tablighi Jamaat as “unjust” and violative of the principles of Islam.
The crackdown on Tablighi Jamaat comes just a week after the last batch of foreigners belonging to the theological organisation left India after spending 21 months in the country amid police cases after some of its members were blamed for flouting Covid-19 social distancing norms.
Nine Thai nationals, who were part of the over 600 foreign Jamaat members who were stuck in India owing to police cases, left Hapur last Friday after serving prison terms.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs has called upon preachers at its mosques to allocate the next Friday sermon to warn against the group’s “misguidance, deviation and danger”. Many muslims groups however also said Saudi Arabia’s tweet was directed at North African religious group Al Ahbab, also mentioned in the tweet that also does Tablighi and Dawah activities.
An orthodox Islamic movement, Tablighi Jamaat was founded in India in 1926 and urges Muslims to be religiously observant, especially with respect to dressing, personal behaviour and rituals.
The organisation is estimated to have around 400 million members across the world and is mainly centred around activities in the mosque and members undertaking chillas (tours) to spread the Islamic way of life. In India, it is based in Delhi’s Alami Markaz Banglewali Masjid in Nizamuddin.
The organization has been banned in West Asia, particularly Saudi Arabia for over thirty years, but the statement linking it with terrorist activities is a first and is likely to have an impact of the organisation’s activities, which have yet to pick up speed due to Covid-19, Tablighi Jamaat members told ET.
Oman and Qatar are among the few countries in West Asia that allow the Tablighi Jamaat to operate.
A Tablighi Jamaat member said the Saudi ban has been around for almost 40 years, but Saudi citizens participate widely in its events, called Ijtemas….
“Besides, their differences with Tablighi Jamaat have been because the latter’s traditions and way of working are at odds with the Salafi school of thought that is puritan and refuses “Bid’at” (innovations in religious matters). Tablighi Jamaat has its own modern-day literature which they insist that members read instead of the Quran and Hadees. Members undertake tours as a religious activity. This is not well received by those who go by the strictest interpretation of Quran and Hadees,” he said….
Infidel says
This is actually a pretty major story: I’m surprised that it went under the radar in JW the last few days
I have a theory on this. As we all know, islam is a major vehicle of Arab supremacy, but it’s hard to assert that when Arabs are just 25% of the world’s ummah, and as a percentage, decreasing! The growth rate of the Arab population is nowhere near the growth rate of the muslim populations in the sub-continent, Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa (outside the Arab League). When Arabs fall to 10% of the world’s ummah, how likely are they to be able to still control all that?
It’s important to note that all dawa activity targets non-Arabs! Tablighi Jamaat are not targeting Arab Christians, since the latter knows too well and keeps their distance. Tablighi Jamaat and other dawa groups instead target people in all sorts of countries – Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and so on. Early last year, when Indian authorities cracked down on a Tablighi Jamaat gathering at Delhi at the beginning of the chinavirus pandemic, the people they arrested were from a lot of the above countries, and violating their visa rules by conducting dawa
It’s not b’cos Tablighi Jamaat is disloyal to Saudi Arabia, or loyal to Turkey or Pakistan. It’s b’cos any gains that Tablighi Jamaat makes for islam will be at the expense of the Arab control of islam. Yeah, current muslims in the subcontinent and elsewhere like pretending that they are Arabs, but that’s gonna be less and less true of new converts who know that they’re not, and would either have to acquiesce at being third class citizens of the ummah, or help the likes of Turkey overturn it. And why would Saudi Arabia or any other Arab country wanna enable that?
I therefore don’t think that this is just a whim of MbS: I think that the Saudis have thought this one through well enough, and what they are doing as a result makes perfect sense. I’d hope that India at least bans that organization as a terrorist group and cracks down on it just like they’d do any pro-Pak group in their country
gravenimage says
Infidel, Arab Christians are indeed under violent pressure to convert to Islam:
“Gaza Christians sense pressure to convert to Islam”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-christians-conversion/gaza-christians-sense-pressure-to-convert-to-islam-idUSBRE86P0J420120726
It’s just that most Arabs have already been converted to Islam, so of course most Da’wa is aimed at non-Arabs.
James Lincoln says
Tragically, it’s likely that the San Bernardino terrorist attacks could have been prevented.
“In a 2016 interview with Frank Gaffney, Haney explained, “The mosque that San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook attended was part of that Tablighi Jamaat network. The Obama administration deleted sixty-seven records out of the system that I had worked on as a component of the Tablighi case.”
https://californiaglobe.com/articles/death-of-dhs-whistleblower-philip-haney-not-a-suicide-say-house-republicans/
gravenimage says
Thanks for that grim link, James.
gravenimage says
Saudi Arabia bans Muslim org Tablighi Jamaat as ‘gates of terrorism,’ Islamic groups call ban ‘unjust’
…………..
Well, *of course* pious Muslims consider any banning of Jihad terrorism to be “unjust”.
And the Saudis are fine with Jihad terrorism as well–they just object to being on the receiving end of it…