Global security experts asess #TablighiJamat as the antechamber of fundamentalism. They claim it is used to nurse & indoctrinate terrorists.
TablighiJamat’s six principles suggest Islamic piety in its extreme. But that's just a mask!
Beyond it's cosmetic exterior, inviting the innocent & idealistic young Muslims into an ideological line that ultimately turns them as terrorists is the real manifesto. Less known & dangerous side of the century-old TJ began unfolding the world over since 2001, but not in India.
“TJ is another system driver & integral element of Islamist Violent Non-State Actors’ internal dynamics; in many cases it has acted as nursery for indoctrinating Islamist terrorists,” writes Dr Farhan Zahid, a Pakistani counter-terrorism & security expert.
In his analysis titled “Tablighi Jamaat and its links with terrorism” [Foreign Analysis March 2015 Centre Francais de Reserche Sur le Renseignement]. Dr Farhan says, TJ “in a way plays the role of recruiter & sympathiser [for terrorism].
TJ’s congregation allows radical elements worldwide to meet & discuss violent activities & provide them with the best opportunity to coordinate”. Adding “many of its followers have dual & overlapping membership with jihadist groups.”
Dr Farhan cites references & says “TJ has now been considered as a ‘gateway to terrorism’. He says since 2001, traces of links have been found between TJ & Islamists involved in acts of terror.
Shoe bomber Richard Reid who attempted a trans-Atlantic airline bombing [2001], Jose Padilla who tried dirty bomb manufacturing [2002] in New York city, Barcelona terror plot [2008] & the arrest of American Taliban John Walker in Afghanistan [2001] were all linked to TJ.
Its French Muslim recruits were found involved in planning attacks by the Portland & the Lackawanna in US. In his analysis titled “Tablighi Jamaat: Jihad’s stealthy Legions” Alex Alexiev writes that as 80 per cent of Islamist extremists have come from Tablighi ranks.
French intelligence calls TJ the ‘antechamber of fundamentalism’. In his investigative story “French Islamic group offers rich soil for militancy’ in TheNewYorkTimes, CraigSmith lists ZacariasMoussaoui, HerveDjamelLoiseau, DjamelBeghal, as TJ terror activists of French origin.
FrethBurton & ScottStewart, in an analysis “Tablighi Jamaat: An Indirect Line to Terrorism” in the Stratfor Global Intelligence Security Weekly, say that 12 out of the 14 men arrested in a pre-emptive raid on a mosque in Barcelona for plotting to attack targets belonged to TJ.
TablighiJamat’s role figured in the 2005 #London underground bombings in which 52 people died & also in the attempted bombings in London, #Glasgow & #Scotland. Assistant #FBI Director MichaelHeimbach says that TJ has significant presence in the US.
In the book 'On The Abyss: Pakistan After the Coup' by Pakistani scholars, diplomats & writers, says that the largely Barelvi Islamic Pakistan, which accepted local variations, as Dargah worship & Sufi traditions, had been hijacked by Deobandi ideology through Tablighi Jamaat.
It's resulted in the growth of militancy. Khaled Ahmed, former diplomat & editor of Friday Times in Pakistan writes in On The Abyss: “Because of the rise of Deobandi militias…. the [Punjab] province is rapidly losing its Barelvi temperament.”
What the authors had prophesied came true in the very next year when Pakistan was found involved in 9/11 attack on the US. Over the years, Pakistan has come to be known as the global terror hub,says Dr Farhan.
Several mainstream Islamist violent non-state actors have taken their roots from TJ’s indoctrination & on the platform provided by TJ missionaries. It is the Deobandi ideology of TJ which provides potential jihadists a crucial link.
During the 1980s & 1990s, TJ became the recruiter of Islamist radicals for the Afghan war. Dr Farhan points out that Harkat-ul Jihad-al-Islami [HuJI] was formed by former TJ members Qari Saifullah Akhtar & Fazal ur Rahman Kalil along with others.
From the HuJI platform emerged other jihadist outfits – Harkat-ul-Mujhahideen [HuM] Jaish-e-Mohammed [JeM], Sipah-e-Sahaba [SSP] & Lashkar-e-Jhangvi [LeJ]. All of them stand declared as terror outfits.
India Abroad News Service report on April 1, 2020 titled “Tablighi Jamaat shares links with terror outfits” said: “As per WikiLeaks, some of the 9/11 #alqaeda suspects detained by #US in #GuantanamoBay had stayed in the #TablighiJamaat Markaz in #NizamuddinWest #NewDelhi, yrs ago
TablighiJamaat was also suspected to be involved in the burning of 59 Hindu kar sevaks in 2002 in Godhra, Gujarat, which led to mass communal rioting in the state.
India’s intelligence & security expert, late B Raman opined that, TJ in Pakistan & Bangladesh gained adverse attention for association with #HarkatulMujahideen #HarkatulJihadalIslami #LashkarEToiba #JaishEMohammad & members of #InternationalIslamicFront formed by #OsamaBinLaden
Quoting Pakistani newspaper reports from the 1990s, Raman pointed out that the trained cadre of jihadi terrorist organisations like #HuM obtained visas by posing as preachers of #TablighiJamaat & went abroad to recruit young Muslims for terror training in Pakistan.
Since millions of #TablighiJamaat proselytisers travel around the world, TJ also developed a large following in #Chechnya & #Dagestan areas of #Russia, #Somalia & other African countries.
Raman wrote that "intelligence agencies of these countries suspected that terror organisations based in Pakistan were using the cover of TJ preaching for creating sleeper cells in different countries. As a result, TJ was black-listed and its preachers denied visas.”
In a piece titled “The road to Sri Lanka Carnage” on http://Rediff.com , the well-known security analyst Praveen Swami linked Mohammad Muhsin Nilam, a Sri Lankan, to Zahran Hashim who was responsible for the Colombo bombings.
Also known as Abu Shuraya, Nilam was killed in #Raqqa #ISIS capital. Nilam’s story is key to understanding the networks thought to be responsible for the carnage in #Colombo. Swami says that #TablighiJamaat had begun to grow roots among Sri Lankan Muslims since early 21st century
Swami says, “Educated in Sharia law at Islamabad’s International Islamic University, an institution where Osama bin Laden’s mentor Abdullah Azzam once taught, Nilam had encountered with the Tablighi Jamaat.
In 2011, when Nilam returned to his home #Kandy Sri Lanka, he first worked as part-time Urdu instructor at #ColomboUniversity. When he was principal of a school in #Galewala, he played a key role in Zahran’s group.
In 2014, feigning to go on a pilgrimage with his 6 children, pregnant wife, & ageing parents, he took them to Turkey and disappeared across the border into Syria. He posted in his Facebook post: “We will kill every man, woman, child, Shia, Sunni, Zoroastrians, Kurds, Christians.”
Nilam had recruited for ISIS 36 Sri Lankans, maybe 100, including his friend, Thauqeer Ahmed Thajudeen. Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamaat & Tablighi Jamaat have identical goals and their interests converge.
Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaat is the mentor of Sri Lanka’s National Thowheed Jamaat, which delivered the bombs in Sri Lanka. There is no Thowheed Jamaat outside India and Sri Lanka.
And now the climax, for the unwary. Where was this noble-looking evil born? India. Who founded it? Indian. Name? Maulana Mohammed Illyasi. When? In 1920s. Where is its global headquarters? Nizamuddin West Delhi!
The place of its annual meet in which hundreds of Tablighis from #Malaysia, #Thailand #Indonesia #China & other #coronavirus hotspots participated. The outbreak was astonishingly in control in #India till #NizamuddinTerrorists exploded as a grave & dangerous national threat.
TJ with its headquarters in India now functions in some 80 countries with 80 million adherents.
In a paper “Tablighi Jamaat: Wolf in sheep’s skin by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a Zionist & multi-award-winning anti-jihadist journalist & a counterterrorism specialist...
He unravels the massive following of JT & its terror connections the world over. Thousands of TJ teachers from within & outside assemble in India & that is what they did in Nizamuddin.
Is it just to memorise the 6 noble principles or as Dr Farhan says “to discuss & coordinate terror activities”, will never be known in India, as no govt has the guts to enter any mosque, thanks to the way secularism is understood in our politics.
Unless this limit is breached & the menace is outlawed, innocent Muslims attracted by its cosmetic exterior of Koran cannot be saved from becoming carriers of Kalashnikovs & makers & throwers of lethal bombs.
Let the courts decide whether TJ’s right to mentor terror in India also constitutes minority right, as is so far being understood.
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