Tablighi, a radical outfit that deserved to be banned..

R K Sinha

The Tablighi Jamaat, that indulges in teaching to  non-Muslims to convert into Islam and to make Muslims fundamentalists and militants in the name of being true Muslims, has caused huge incalculable  damage to India’s ongoing war against the corona virus.They  have put the entire nation  in a big health crisis. How the nation   comes  out of this difficult situation is a moot  question now.

When the Kaaba, Mecca, Medina were closed due to Corona, Vatican City was shut down, shrines, mosque gurudwaras were closed, Tablighi Jamaat held meeting in the Nizamuddin area of Delhi where  thousands of natives  and foreign Maulanas participated.This begs a question , Why the Prime Minister’s appeal was ignored?

Will the people advocating their cause tell  how they justify their shameless act of holding this conference in the wake of an outbreak of corona all over the world and especially India which is going through a phase of lock down and social distancing. What was the conspiracy behind this?

These advocates of Tabligi rule out the possibility of any conspiracy the weakening the resolve of the government’s fight against corona by the Jamaat, hardly realizing that they violated every law of the land and also  the government’s directive by not adhering to the policy of social distancing. The presence of hundreds of foreigners in their group raises even deeper questions.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first call for the ‘Janata Curfew’ on March 22, and then for a nationwide lockdown on March 24 was treated with utter contempt by these religious fanatics.

The Prime Minister had, on both the occasions, appealed to the nation his resolve to break the chain of corona virus infection by pleading with people to stay indoors  and avoid public contact. No Prime Minister ever of any nation in the past has ever appealed with  folded hands.

Now it is fact  that most of the Tablighi Jamaat people are in the grip of corona virus some of whom have died .. However, it is yet to be ascertained as to how many people would have been infected by corona virus primary and secondary due to the shameless and irresponsible act of these fanatics.

Reports say close  12, 000were invited to attend the Jamaat, out of which only 7-8 thousand attended from our  country and abroad. Thus many ignored  the call perhaps perceiving the danger and  sensibly kept them aloof from this calamity.

You often might have seen around 10-15 people wearing fancy round cap donning a  long  Kurta and short payjama having a typical beard moustache with a bag in their hands roaming in different parts of the country.Doesn’t it seem that these proselytizing army of so called Moulvis/Mullahs  are still living in the Stone Age? On the contrary, Tablighi claim that their objective is to guide and follow Islam sounds hollow.

Wherever they go or visit they only stay in the mosques . They also claim that the Tablighi Jamaat, started in 1927, is spread in more than 150 countries of the world. However, due to their links  with terrorist organizations, many countries including Russia and Kazakhistan have banned the Jamaat.  The organisation is estimated to have between 120 million to 150 million adherents worldwide although the majority living in South Asia.You will be surprised to know that there is no website, newspaper or channel of the Jamaat despite having such a big following.

Anti-nationalism under the garb of secularism , In fact, the antecedents of  of Tablighi Jamaat itself has been suspicious. It has been facing serious allegations of being linked  to organization like Al-Qaeda and harboring terrorists associated with it.

Tablighi Jamaat was under the scanner of intelligence agencies following allegations that militant Hafiz Saeed lend  money to Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation in a mosque in Palwal, Haryana, about two years back. It is  regrettable that in the guise of secularism these , anti-national elements are active and the governments deliberately remain non-commital and ignore intentionally  due to vote bank politics.

Well, Delhi Police has swung into action against Maulana Saad, the head of Tabligi Jamaat, and registered cases against him under sections 269, 270, 271, 120B of IPC. He is accused of leading several thousand people in the Tablighi Markaz under his leadership and violating government orders. Maulana Saad had clearly stated in his speeches that Muslims need not heed to  the Prime Minister’s appeal, thus justifying that  if at all they  have to die due to carona, it is better to die in mosques for a noble cause of Islam.

It is also important that Darul Uloom Deoband has been making serious allegations against Saad and Tablighi Jamaat. Darul Uloom Deoband has also  levelled allegations against Maulana Saad, president of Jamaat in India, for misinterpreting the Islamic Sharia and insulting the prophets of Allah. Apart from this, on 17 November 2011, WikiLeaks had also said on Tablighi Jamaat that with its help Al-Qaeda was trying to gain a foothold in India. The seriousness of these allegations can well be imagined.

The recent incidents  have been instrumental in exposing the real face of Tablighi Jamaat and the whole country has now been informed of their nefarious activities  . This is perhaps what the deadly Corona has done.

Their meetings are being supported by evil forces from all over the world animical to India. They want the world to return to the era when Islam was born. They hate inclusive society. They also want to make India an Islamic country. They strongly reject the secular liberal aspect  of Islam, which we know as the Sufi sequence. They never go to the dargah of a Sufi mystic to prostrate.

They never visit the dargahs of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusra in Nizamuddin. They hate the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb. The Tablighi Jamaat is running a factory to produce  Muslims fanatics. Their object is to make everyone monolithic and want them to mould into thier  beliefs. The hard tenacity to acclimatize is nurtured. Tablighi Jamaat is the name of one such dangerous large production outfit. The country will have to fight against this toxic ideology.

 In an article written by BBC London senior journalist Mark Tully  who lived in Nizamuddin area for thirty years, he wrote that if one wants to see how  various views of Muslims co-exist  peacefully in India, one should come to India. Had Nizamuddin Auliya and Tablighi Markaz occurred together in any Islamic country, Tablighis would have destroyed the dargah in no time. There can be no place for organizations like Tablighi Jamaat in a pluralistic country like India.

The secular Muslims of the country will also have to come forward in the fight against the Tablighi Jamaat. They must prevail in flushing out such tendencies. It is often  seen that Muslims keep tolerating the evils prevalent in their society.

But now is the need of the hour to fight an radical ,anti-human organization like Tablighi Jamaat. The methodology adopted even in  the midst of the deadly corona threats, therefore  establishes the fact that  its intentions were not honorable .Thus this intentional act has to be curbed in no time and restore sanity in the Muslim world.

(The writer is senior editor and columnist)