The Guardians of Islam's Holiest Sites Ban the World's Largest Islamic Group
By Dr Aslam Abdullah
Fontana, CA

 

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Islamic Affairs declared the Tablighi Jamat a gate to terrorism and banned it in the Kingdom. The Muhammad Bin Salman regime relied on information offered by CIA, RAW, MI-5, and the French DGSE to take this unprecedented decision.

The Tablighi Jamat emerged in the 1920s to respond to the Shuddhi movement started by Swami Shardhananad to convert non-Hindus to Hinduism under the banner of Araya Samaj. Shuddhi is Sanskrit for purification. Araya Samaj considers Sikhs, Dalits, Buddhists, Jains, Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians impure.

Gandhi commenting on the movement wrote the following in the May 29, 1922, issue of Young India.

"Swami Shraddhananda has also become a character of disbelief. I know that his speeches are often provocative. Just as most Muslims think that every non-Muslim will one day convert to Islam, Shraddhananda also believes that every Muslim can become part of the Aryan religion. Shraddhananda Ji is fearless. He alone has built a great Brahmacharya Ashram (Gurukul) in the holy Ganges. But they are in a hurry, and it will move soon. He inherited it from the Aryan society."

Tablighi Jamat focused on areas where Araya Samaj had forcibly converted many Muslims belonging to Rajputs. Its message was simple. Every Muslim should be well versed in the meaning of the first article of faith, the Kalima, or the assertion that there is no god but one God and Muhammad is his messenger. They should live their life according to the Qur’an and the practice of the Prophet.

Prayer is the essence of faith, and Muslims should not neglect five daily prayers. In addition to Salat, Muslims should aspire to increase their knowledge to remember God and His bounties. Moreover, Muslims should honor fellow Muslims by showing compassion, generosity and solidarity. Their intentions should be pure, and they should devote time to relay the above message to other Muslims.

Over the years, the Tablighi Jamat grew as one of the most disciplined and organized apolitical religious movements without the structure of an organization. Everyday millions of its volunteers are active in almost every part of the world, staying in mosques and sharing their passion with other Muslims.

However, the lack of proper organization and the reliance only on volunteers made the Tablighi Jamat a recruiting ground for various intelligence organizations and political groups.

Saudi religious groups in the 1980s worked closely with the Tablighi Jamat and, at the behest of the CIA-controlled leaders, obtained crucial information on East European countries where the Tablighis often visited. Likewise, the ISI of Pakistan and the RAW of India always had their recruits in the Tablighi Jamat to collect information on Mosques and Muslims in the area where the groups visited. One of the programs of the Tablighis is to see people's homes to invite them to the mosque and persuade them to spare days and months for missionary work.

Intelligence agencies and other groups, such as white and Hindu supremacists, also had their trained members posing as Tablighis.

Because of its prominent position in the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia was the leading nation to use Muslim organizations to justify its undemocratic and despotic regime in the name of Islam. Perhaps, there is not a single Muslim organization of leader of the prominence that did not receive funding from Saudi sources during the last five decades. Saudi monarchy was a proxy for Washington, London, and Paris.

Under the present de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, India, with the Hindu nationalist, has assumed a significant position in the Kingdom. The two countries share important decisions. Regular meetings between their intelligence agencies occur in which the members of the Hindu militant organizations, the RSS are present. Over the years, the Saudis have donated vast amounts of money to several Muslim outfits in India. The information the Saudi intelligence shares that information with the government of India.

The ban on the Tablighi Jamat is the outcome of the intelligence network. Saudi authorities fear that anti-monarchy elements have become part of the Tablighi movement. Therefore, during their visits to various Saudi cities, they recruit dissidents to organize a movement for change in the future. After ruling the country for more than eight decades, the ban is part of the royal family's insecurities.

(Dr Aslam Abdullah is a resident scholar at Islamicity.org and editor-in-chief of the Muslim Observer newspaper. He is also the Indian Islamic Heritage Project director of the American Federation of Muslims of Indian origin and the interim President of the World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations, WCMIR.)