Vague news of Saudi’ ban’ on Tablighi Jamaat provides fodder to Saffron propaganda Mill

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s cryptic comments on Tablighi Jamaat and Tablighi Jamaat’s typical silence has fueled doubts and allowed Hindutva groups further to demonize it and the Muslim community as a whole. It has also alarmed Indian Muslims, who were subjected to a vicious demonization campaign during the first phase of Covid-19. If the reports coming from the Kingdom are correct, then it will have far-reaching consequences for Indian Muslims because India is the birthplace of the Tablighi Jamaat.
The Saudi Islamic Affairs ministry’s Tweets obliquely referred to or without named Tablighi Jamaat as “one of the gates of terrorism,” but a section of Islamophobic Indian media went gaga over it. It is still fresh in memory how this section of the Indian media went berserk after the TJ during the first Covid-induced nationwide lockdown last year. This 95-year-old “pacifist and apolitical” religious movement began in 1926 to answer the Shuddhi Movement (Proselytising Hindu movement to convert Muslims in Mewat area around Delhi) started by the Arya Samaj and its founder Swami Dayanand Saraswati.
Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs, Dr. Abdullatif Al Alsheikh, on social media site Twitter (December 06, 2021), directed the mosques’ Imams to warn during the Friday sermon about the Tablighi Jamaat and its activities.
The second tweet of the Minister does not have the blue tick, which gives authenticity to one’s account. In this tweet, it is attributed to the Minister that “His Excellency also directed that the sermon include the following topics:
1- Declaration of the misguidance, deviation, and danger of this group, and that it is one of the gates of terrorism, even if they claim otherwise.
2- Mention their most prominent mistakes.”
3- The third tweet, also without a blue tick, says: “Mention their danger to society.
4- Statement that affiliation with partisan groups, including (the Tablighi and Da’wah Group) is prohibited in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
In all three tweets, the Saudi Minister did not specifically state Tablighi Jamaat, India, or any other Indian Muslim organization. Still, this media section attributed its allegations to the Saudi government to brand the Jamaat as a “terror group.”
This provided enough fodder to media outlets to run a high-pitched Hindutva narrative which has kept the majority blind to the fact that Islam, like other religions, too have different sects and that they are at loggerheads in many Muslim-majority nations.
On the other hand, the apologists and the opportunists in the Muslim community in India are failingly attempting to interpret, or justify, the tweet of the country’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs with one argument or the other without exactly knowing the spirit and intention of the said order. However, the inept handling of the communication by the Kingdom has certainly offered enough fodder to the mainstream media, especially television news channels, to keep ratcheting up anti-Muslimism.
Naturally, this has enraged the followers of Tablighi Jamaat and the Indian Muslims and their organizations, who generally do not agree with the Tablighi Jamaat’s views of Islam.
Equally deplorable is the silence of the Tablighi Jamaat, which ought to come forward to clear the mess.
This scribe reached out to some key members of Jamaat for their reaction but in vain. It may be a case of the plaintiff being lethargic, but the witness is more than energetic. This scribe also contacted a close confidant of the TJ Ameer (President) Maulana Mohammad Saad, who promised but stopped even attending the phone calls. “I told him TJ leadership’s silence on the Saudi government decision would make matters worse not only for the group but also for the community as a whole as happened during the firstwave of Covid-19.”
Even the known religious groups who have an ideological affinity and bonding with the Tablighi people also do not come forward immediately to the rescue of Jamaat because of the high stakes involved with Saudi Arabia.
The first reaction belatedly comes from the Darul Uloom Deoband. Its rector, Maulana Mufti Abul Qasim Nomani, expressed concern over the campaign against the Tablighi Jamaat by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). He reminded that the founder of Tablighi Jamaat Maulana Muhammad Ilyas (ra) was one of the disciples of Shaikhul Hind Hazrat Maulana Mahmood Hassan (ra). He said allegations of polytheism, heresy, and terrorism against the Tablighi Jamaat in general and groups or individuals associated with it are absolutely meaningless and baseless. “Darul Uloom Deoband condemns such allegations and appeals to Saudi Arabia to reconsider its stand and refrain from such a campaign against Tablighi Jamaat,” Maulana Nomani added.
Later on, both Jamiat Ulama-i- Hind factions swung into action.
The President of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (M), Maulana Mahmood Madani, said that those who are opposing the Tablighi Jamaat are either influenced by baseless propaganda or ignorant about facts. In an appeal, Maulana Madani said that the Tablighi Jamaat is at present the largest peaceful religious and constructive movement all over the world. During its hundred years of existence, it has guided the misguided youth to the righteous path, brought the astray youths out of pubs to mosques.
Interestingly, in the official statement of JUH (M), nowhere any word mentioned about Saudi Arabia. Nor it condemns the Saudi government’s action in what it calls a malicious campaign.
While JUH’s other faction President Maulana Arshad Madani, claimed that the Saudi government did not ban the group who met Saudi Arabia envoy to India Saud Muhammad bin Sati in Delhi. He blamed Indian media for spreading false news about Tablighi Jamaat.
Stating in a guarded language, Maulana Arshad Madani said he told the Saudi envoy that the Saudi Ministry’s action is a cause of grave concern for Muslims worldwide. He, too, did not utter a word of condemnation on the Saudi action.
It is puzzling that Muslim groups, which are ideologically on the same page with the Tabligh people, are not forthcoming. In stark contrast, Jamaat Islami Hind took a bold stand stating that the Saudi decision on Tablighi Jamaat cannot be justified in any way.
Senior journalist Faizul Haque, who worked in the Arab media and is a keen observer of the Middle East, said it is surprising to note that Tablighi people are not even explaining their position while others are taking cudgel on behalf of them.
Describing Tablighi Jamaat as the most harmless Muslim group for others on the planet, Haque said they do not even talk about Islam’s political, economic, and social teachings.
“This group does not pose any challenge to any authority and power, and they cannot even stand up to protect themselves against any propaganda. They are only vagabonds who keep roaming from one place to another from one mosque to another just to tell people to offer five-time prayers and recite Kalimah etc.”.
The Juma sermon is written by the Saudi authorities and read in all country’s mosques. But this particular sermon was not delivered in the grand mosques of Makkah and Madinah, he added. In these Friday sermons, there was not a single word about terrorism attributed to Tablighi Jamaat.
Saudi scholars view Tablighi people as a “deviant” and “heretic’ group. The Juma sermons on December 10 called the Tablighi Jamaat a ‘heretic’ group, and their belief is “shirk” (idolatry) and “bidat” (adulteration in Islam) which powerful words to condemn a Muslim or a Muslim organization. The sermon appealed to its citizens to sever their relations with the Tablighi Jamaat and their associates who operated in the Kingdom under the guidance of Al-Ahbab. It compared the Tablighi Jamaat with the Muslim Brotherhood that demands democratic government, instead of dynastic and military dictatorship, in Arab countries.
However, this is not the first time Saudi Arabia and its Islamic scholars have denounced Tablighi Jamaat’s religious belief.
In the 1990s, a top religious scholar said,”Tablighi Nisab'(now titled as ‘Fazail-e-Aamal) a book full of contents that do not strictly conform to the test of Islamic monotheism. The same view is held by a large number of Indian religious scholars. The book is considered to bethe “Bible” of the Tablighi movement written by Maulana Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi, a relative of Jamaat founder Muhammad Ilyas. People attached to the group generally prefer reading the Fazail-e-Aamal, weakening its followers’ relations with the Quran.
The question of banning a group or organization (read Tablighi) does not arise as the Saudi government does not allow any faith-based organization or group to work on its soil. The most shocking was the news spread by Indian media that Saudi Arabia has banned Tablighi Jamaat.
Lack of free flow of news from Saudi Arabia is also a problem that leads to confusion about the ban. This scribe also reached out to an editor of an esteemed Arab daily published from Riyadh, but his terse reply was, “I don’t know.”