| TABLIGHI JAMAAT:
JIHAD'S STEALTHY LEGIONS |
by Alex Alexiev |
Every fall, over a million almost identically
dressed, bearded Muslim men from around the world descend on the
small Pakistani town of Raiwind for a three-day celebration of faith.
Similar gatherings take place annually outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh,
and Bhopal, India. These pilgrims are no ordinary Muslims, though;
they belong to a movement called Tablighi Jamaat ("Proselytizing
Group"). They are trained missionaries who have dedicated much
of their lives to spreading Islam across the globe. The largest group
of religious proselytizers of any faith, they are part of the reason
for the explosive growth of Islamic religious fervor and conversion.
Despite its size, worldwide presence, and tremendous importance,
Tablighi Jamaat remains largely unknown outside the Muslim community,
even to many scholars of Islam. This is no coincidence. Tablighi
Jamaat officials work to remain outside of both media and governmental
notice. Tablighi Jamaat neither has formal organizational structure
nor does it publish details about the scope of its activities, its
membership, or its finances. By eschewing open discussion of politics
and portraying itself only as a pietistic movement, Tablighi Jamaat
works to project a non-threatening image. Because of the movement's
secrecy, scholars often have no choice but to rely on explanations
from Tablighi Jamaat acolytes.
As a result, academics tend to describe the group as an apolitical
devotional movement stressing individual faith, introspection, and
spiritual development. The austere and egalitarian lifestyle of Tablighi
missionaries and their principled stands against social ills leads
many outside observers to assume that the group has a positive influence
on society. Graham Fuller, a former CIA official and expert on Islam,
for example, characterized Tablighi Jamaat as a "peaceful and
apolitical preaching-to-the-people movement."[1] Barbara Metcalf,
a University of California scholar of South Asian Islam, called Tablighi
Jamaat "an apolitical, quietist movement of internal grassroots
missionary renewal" and compares its activities to the efforts
to reshape individual lives by Alcoholics Anonymous.[2] Olivier Roy,
a prominent authority on Islam at Paris's prestigious Centre National
de la Recherche Scientifique, described Tablighi Jamaat as "completely
apolitical and law abiding."[3] Governments normally intolerant
of independent movements often make an exception for Tablighi Jamaat.
The Bangladeshi prime minister and top political leadership, many
of whom are Islamists, regularly attend their rallies, and Pakistani
military officers, many of whom are sympathetic to militant Islam,
even allow Tablighi missionaries to preach in the barracks.
Yet, the Pakistani experience strips the patina from Tablighi Jamaat's
façade. Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif (1990-93; 1997-99),
whose father was a prominent Tablighi member and financier, helped
Tablighi members take prominent positions.[4] For example, in 1998,
Muhammad Rafique Tarar took the ceremonial presidency while, in 1990,
Javed Nasir assumed the powerful director-generalship of the Inter-Services
Intelligence, Pakistan's chief intelligence agency. When Benazir
Bhutto, less sympathetic to Islamist causes, returned to the premiership
in 1993, Tablighis conspired to overthrow her government. In 1995,
the Pakistani army thwarted a coup attempt by several dozen high-ranking
military officers and civilians, all of whom were members of the
Tablighi Jamaat and some of whom also held membership in Harakat
ul-Mujahideen, a U.S. State Department-defined terrorist organization.[5]
Some of the confusion over Tablighi Jamaat's apolitical characterization
derives from the fact that the movement does not consider individual
states to be legitimate. They may not become actively involved in
internal politics or disputes over local issues, but, from a philosophical
and transnational perspective, the Tablighi Jamaat's millenarian
philosophy is very political indeed. According to the French Tablighi
expert Marc Gaborieau, its ultimate objective is nothing short of
a "planned conquest of the world" in the spirit of jihad.[6] |
| Origins and Ideology |
The prominent Deobandi cleric and scholar Maulana
Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi (1885-1944) launched Tablighi Jamaat in
1927 in Mewat, India, not far from Delhi. From its inception, the
extremist attitudes that characterize Deobandism permeated Tablighi
philosophy. Ilyas's followers were intolerant of other Muslims and
especially Shi‘ites, let alone adherents of other faiths. Indeed,
part of Ilyas's impetus for founding Tablighi Jamaat was to counter
the inroads being made by Hindu missionaries. They rejected modernity
as antithetical to Islam, excluded women, and preached that Islam
must subsume all other religions.[7] The creed grew in importance
after Pakistani military dictator Zia ul-Haq encouraged Deobandis
to Islamize Pakistan.
The Tablighi Jamaat canon is bare-boned. Apart from the Qu'ran, the
only literature Tablighis are required to read are the Tablighi Nisab,
seven essays penned by a companion of Ilyas in the 1920s. Tablighi
Jamaat is not a monolith: one subsection believes they should pursue
jihad through conscience (jihad bin nafs) while a more radical wing
advocates jihad through the sword (jihad bin saif).[8] But, in practice,
all Tablighis preach a creed that is hardly distinguishable from
the radical Wahhabi-Salafi jihadist ideology that so many terrorists
share.
Part of the reason why the Tablighi Jamaat leadership can maintain
such strict secrecy is its dynastic flavor. All Tablighi Jamaat leaders
since Ilyas have been related to him by either blood or marriage.
Upon Ilyas' 1944 death, his son, Maulana Muhammad Yusuf (1917-65),
assumed leadership of the movement, dramatically expanding its reach
and influence. Following the partition of India, Tablighi Jamaat
spread rapidly in the new Muslim nation of Pakistan. Yusuf and his
successor, Inamul Hassan (1965-95), transformed Tablighi Jamaat into
a truly transnational movement with a renewed emphasis targeting
conversion of non-Muslims, a mission the movement continues to the
present day.
While few details are known about the group's structure, at the top
sits the emir who, according to some observers, presides over a shura
(council), which plays an advisory role. Further down are individual
country organizations. By the late 1960s, Tablighi Jamaat had not
only established itself in Western Europe and North America but even
claimed adherents in countries like Japan, which has no significant
Muslim population.
The movement's rapid penetration into non-Muslim regions began in
the 1970s and coincides with the establishment of a synergistic relationship
between Saudi Wahhabis and South Asian Deobandis. While Wahhabis
are dismissive of other Islamic schools, they single out Tablighi
Jamaat for praise, even if they disagree with some of its practices,
such as willingness to pray in mosques housing graves. The late Sheikh
‘Abd al ‘Aziz ibn Baz, perhaps the most influential Wahhabi
cleric in the late twentieth century, recognized the Tablighis good
work and encouraged his Wahhabi brethren to go on missions with them
so that they can "guide and advise them."[9] A practical
result of this cooperation has been large-scale Saudi financing of
Tablighi Jamaat. While Tablighi Jamaat in theory requires its missionaries
to cover their own expenses during their trips, in practice, Saudi
money subsidizes transportation costs for thousands of poor missionaries.
While Tablighi Jamaat's financial activities are shrouded in secrecy,
there is no doubt that some of the vast sums spent by Saudi organizations
such as the World Muslim League on proselytism benefit Tablighi Jamaat.
As early as 1978, the World Muslim League subsidized the building
of the Tablighi mosque in Dewsbury, England, which has since become
the headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat in all of Europe.[10] Wahhabi
sources have paid Tablighi missionaries in Africa salaries higher
than the European Union pays teachers in Zanzibar.[11] In both Western
Europe and the United States, Tablighis operate interchangeably out
of Deobandi and Wahhabi controlled mosques and Islamic centers. |
| Wolf in Sheep's Clothing |
The West's misreading of Tablighi Jamaat actions
and motives has serious implications for the war on terrorism. Tablighi
Jamaat has always adopted an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam,
but in the past two decades, it has radicalized to the point where
it is now a driving force of Islamic extremism and a major recruiting
agency for terrorist causes worldwide. For a majority of young Muslim
extremists, joining Tablighi Jamaat is the first step on the road
to extremism. Perhaps 80 percent of the Islamist extremists in France
come from Tablighi ranks, prompting French intelligence officers
to call Tablighi Jamaat the "antechamber of fundamentalism."[12]
U.S. counterterrorism officials are increasingly adopting the same
attitude. "We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat
in the United States," the deputy chief of the FBI's international
terrorism section said in 2003, "and we have found that Al-Qaeda
used them for recruiting now and in the past."[13]
Recruitment methods for young jihadists are almost identical. After
joining Tablighi Jamaat groups at a local mosque or Islamic center
and doing a few local dawa (proselytism) missions, Tablighi officials
invite star recruits to the Tablighi center in Raiwind, Pakistan,
for four months of additional missionary training. Representatives
of terrorist organizations approach the students at the Raiwind center
and invite them to undertake military training.[14] Most agree to
do so.
Tablighi Jamaat has long been directly involved in the sponsorship
of terrorist groups. Pakistani and Indian observers believe, for
instance, that Tablighi Jamaat was instrumental in founding Harakat
ul-Mujahideen. Founded at Raiwind in 1980, almost all of the Harakat
ul-Mujahideen's original members were Tablighis. Famous for the December
1998 hijacking of an Air India passenger jet and the May 8, 2002
murder of a busload of French engineers in Karachi, Harakat members
make no secret of their ties. "The two organizations together
make up a truly international network of genuine jihadi Muslims,"
one senior Harakat ul-Mujahideen official said.[15] More than 6,000
Tablighis have trained in Harakat ul-Mujahideen camps. Many fought
in Afghanistan in the 1980s and readily joined Al-Qaeda after the
Taliban defeated Afghanistan's anti-Soviet mujahideen.[16]
Another violent Tablighi Jamaat spin-off is the Harakat ul-Jihad-i
Islami.[17] Founded in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan,
this group has been active not only in the disputed Indian provinces
of Jammu and Kashmir but also in the state of Gujarat, where Tablighi
Jamaat extremists have taken over perhaps 80 percent of the mosques
previously run by the moderate Barelvi Muslims.[18] The Tablighi
movement is also very active in northern Africa where it became one
of the four groups that founded the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria.
Moroccan authorities are currently prosecuting sixty members of the
Moroccan Tablighi offshoot Dawa wa Tabligh in connection with the
May 16, 2003 terrorist attack on a Casablanca synagogue.[19] Dutch
police are investigating links between the Moroccan cells and the
November 2, 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.[20]
There are many other cases of individual Tablighis committing acts
of terrorism. French Tablighi members, for example, have helped organize
and execute attacks not only in Paris but also at the Hotel Asni
in Marrakech in 1994.[21] Kazakh authorities expelled a number of
Tablighi missionaries because they had been organizing networks advancing
"extremist propaganda and recruitment."[22] Indian investigators
suspect influential Tablighi leader, Maulana Umarji, and a group
of his followers in the February 27, 2002 fire bombing of a train
carrying Hindu nationalists in Gujarat, India. The incident sparked
a wave of pogroms victimizing both Muslims and Hindus.[23] More recently,
Moroccan authorities sentenced Yusef Fikri, a Tablighi member and
leader of the Moroccan terrorist organization At-Takfir wal-Hijrah,
to death for his role in masterminding the May 2003 Casablanca terrorist
bombings that claimed more than forty lives.[24]
Tablighi Jamaat has also facilitated other terrorists' missions.
The group has provided logistical support and helped procure travel
documents. Many take advantage of Tablighi Jamaat's benign reputation.
Moroccan authorities say that leaflets circulated by the terrorist
group Al-Salafiyah al-Jihadiyah urged their members to join Islamic
organizations that operate openly, such as Tablighi Jamaat, in order
"to hide their identity on the one hand and influence these
groups and their policies on the other."[25] In a similar vein,
a Pakistani jihadi website commented that Tablighi Jamaat organizational
structures can be easily adopted to jihad activities.[26] The Philippine
government has accused Tablighi Jamaat, which has an 11,000-member
presence in the country, of serving both as a conduit of Saudi money
to the Islamic terrorists in the south and as a cover for Pakistani
jihad volunteers.[27]
There is also evidence that Tablighi Jamaat directly recruits for
terrorist organizations. As early as the 1980s, the movement sponsored
military training for 900 recruits annually in Pakistan and Algeria
while, in 1999, Uzbek authorities accused Tablighi Jamaat of sending
400 Uzbeks to terrorist training camps.[28] The West is not immune.
British counterterrorism authorities estimate that at least 2,000
British nationals had gone to Pakistan for jihad training by 1998,
and the French secret services report that between 80 and 100 French
nationals fought for Al-Qaeda.[29] |
| A Trojan Horse for Terror in America? |
Within the United States, the cases of American
Taliban John Lindh, the "Lackawanna Six," and the Oregon
cell that conspired to bomb a synagogue and sought to link up with
Al-Qaeda,[30] all involve Tablighi missionaries.[31] Other indicted
terrorists, such as "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, "dirty
bomber" Jose Padilla, and Lyman Harris, who sought to bomb the
Brooklyn Bridge, were all members of Tablighi Jamaat at one time
or another.[32] According to Robert Blitzer, head of the FBI's first
Islamic counterterrorism unit, between 1,000 and 2,000 Americans
left to join the jihad in the 1990s alone.[33] Pakistani intelligence
sources report that 400 American Tablighi recruits received training
in Pakistani or Afghan terrorist camps since 1989.[34]
The Tablighi Jamaat has made inroads among two very different segments
of the American Muslim population. Because many American Muslims
are immigrants, and a large subsection of these are from South Asia,
Deobandi influences have been able to penetrate deeply. Many Tablighi
Jamaat missionaries speak Urdu as a first language and so can communicate
easily with American Muslims of South Asian origin. The Tablighi
headquarters in the United States for the past decade appears to
be in the Al-Falah mosque in Queens, New York. Its missionaries—predominantly
from South Asia—regularly visit Sunni mosques and Islamic centers
across the country.[35] The willingness of Saudi-controlled front
organizations and charities, such as the World Muslim League, the
World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), the Haramain Foundation, the
International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) and others, to spend
large amounts of money to co-opt the religious establishment has
helped catalyze recruitment. As a result Wahhabi and Deobandi influence
dominate American Islam.[36]
This trend is apparent in the activities of Tanzeem-e Islami. Founded
by long-term Tablighi member and passionate Taliban supporter, Israr
Ahmed, Tanzeem-e Islami flooded American Muslim organizations with
communications accusing Israel of complicity in the 9/11 terror attacks.[37]
A frequent featured speaker at Islamic conferences and events in
the United States, Ahmed engages in incendiary rhetoric urging his
audiences to prepare for "the final showdown between the Muslim
world and the non-Muslim world, which has been captured by the Jews."[38]
Unfortunately, his conspiracy theories have begun to take hold among
growing segments of the American Muslim community. For example, Siraj
Wahhaj, among the best known African-American Muslim converts and
the first Muslim cleric to lead prayers in the U.S. Congress, is
also on record accusing the FBI and the CIA of being the "real
terrorists." He has expressed his support for the convicted
mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Sheik Omar Abdel
Rahman, and advocating the demise of American democracy.[39]
Tablighi Jamaat has appealed to African American Muslims for other
reasons. Founded by Elijah Mohammed in the early 1930s, the Nation
of Islam was essentially a charismatic African American separatist
organization which had little to do with normative Islam. Many Nation
of Islam members found attractive both the Tablighi Jamaat's anti-state
separatist message and its description of American society as racist,
decadent, and oppressive. Seeing such fertile ground, Tablighi and
Wahhabi missionaries targeted the African American community with
great success. One Tablighi sympathizer explained,
The umma [Muslim community] must remember that winning over the black
Muslims is not only a religious obligation but also a selfish necessity.
The votes of the black Muslims can give the immigrant Muslims the
political clout they need at every stage to protect their vital interests.
Likewise, outside Muslim states like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and
Pakistan need to mobilize their effort, money, and missionary skills
to expand and consolidate the black Muslim community in the USA,
not only for religious reasons, but also as a farsighted investment
in the black Muslims' immense potential as a credible lobby for Muslim
causes, such as Palestine, Bosnia, or Kashmir—offsetting, at
least partially, the venal influence of the powerful India-Israel
lobby.[40]
Not only foreign Tablighis but also the movement's sympathizers within
the United States enunciate this goal. The president of the Islamic
Research Foundation in Louisville, Kentucky, a strong advocate of
Tablighi missionary work, for instance, insists that "if all
the Afro-American brothers and sisters become Muslims, we can change
the political landscape of America" and "make U.S. foreign
policy pro-Islamic and Muslim friendly."[41] As a result of
Tablighi and Wahhabi proselytizing, African Americans comprise between
30 and 40 percent of the American Muslim community, and perhaps 85
percent of all American Muslim converts. Much of this success is
due to a successful proselytizing drive in the penitentiary system.
Prison officials say that by the mid-1990s, between 10 and 20 percent
of the nation's 1.5 million inmates identified themselves as Muslims.
Some 30,000 African Americans convert to Islam in prison every year.[42]
The American political system tolerates all views so long as they
adhere to the rule of law. Unfortunately, Tablighi Jamaat missionaries
may be encouraging African American recruits to break the law. Harkat
ul-Mujahideen has boasted of training dozens of African American
jihadists in its military camps. There is evidence that African American
jihadists have died in both Afghanistan and Kashmir.[43] |
| Tablighi Jamaat: The Future of American
Islam? |
Tablighi Jamaat has made unprecedented strides
in recent decades. It increasingly relies on local missionaries rather
than South Asian Tablighis to recruit in Western countries and often
sets up groups which apparently model themselves after Tablighi Jamaat
but do not acknowledge links to it.[44]
In the United States, such a role is apparently played by the Islamic
Circle of North America (ICNA). Founded in 1968 as an offshoot of
the fiercely Islamist Muslim Student Association,[45] ICNA is the
only major American Muslim organization that has paid open homage
to Tablighi founder Ilyas. The monthly ICNA publication, The Message,
has praised Ilyas as one of the four greatest Islamic leaders of
the last 100 years.[46] While the relationship between ICNA and Tablighi
Jamaat is not clear, the two organizations share a number of similarities.
They both embrace the extreme Deobandi and Wahhabi interpretations
of Islam. ICNA demonstrates disdain for Western democratic values
and opposes virtually all counterterrorism legislation, such as the
Patriot Act, while providing moral and financial support to all Muslims
implicated in terrorist activities. An editorial in the ICNA organ,
The Message International, in September 1989 bemoaned the "uncounted
number of Muslims lost to Western values" which was a "major
cause for concern."[47] In 2003 and 2004, ICNA has collected
money to assist detainees suspected of terrorist activities, participated
in pro-terrorist rallies, and mounted campaigns on behalf of indicted
Hamas functionary Sami al-Arian.[48] Like Tablighi Jamaat, ICNA initially
drew its membership disproportionately from South Asians. As with
Tablighi Jamaat, ICNA demands total dedication to missionary work
from its members. Because many ICNA members spend at least thirty
hours per week on their mission,[49] their ability to independently
support themselves is unclear. Many cannot hold full-time jobs. ICNA's
recruitment efforts have borne fruit, though. All ICNA members are
organized in small study groups of no more than eight people, called
NeighborNets. As in a cult, these cells provide support and reinforcement
for new recruits, who may have sought to fill a void in their lives.
Its yearly convocations, patterned on the annual Tablighi Jamaat
meetings in South Asia, now attract some 15,000 people.[50] |
| Conclusion |
The estimated 15,000 Tablighi missionaries
reportedly active in the United States present a serious national
security problem.[51] At best, they and their proxy groups form a
powerful proselytizing movement that preaches extremism and disdain
for religious tolerance, democracy, and separation of church and
state. At worst, they represent an Islamist fifth column that aids
and abets terrorism. Contrary to their benign treatment by scholars
and academics, Tablighi Jamaat has more to do with political sedition
than with religion.
U.S. officials should focus on reality rather than rhetoric. Pakistani
and Saudi support for Tablighi Jamaat is incompatible with their
claims to be key allies in the war on terror. While law enforcement
focuses attention on Osama bin Laden, the war on terrorism cannot
be won unless al-Qaeda terrorists are understood to be the products
of Islamist ideology preached by groups like Tablighi Jamaat. If
the West chooses to turn a blind eye to the problem, Tablighi involvement
in future terrorist activities at home and abroad is not a matter
of conjecture; it is a certainty.
Alex Alexiev is vice president for research at the Center for Security
Policy in Washington, D.C. |
|
