Muslim organisations: Tablighi Jamaat has many enemies

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, May 19: The Tablighi Jamaat has many enemies both among
Muslims and non-Muslims. It is more than 80 year old Islamic movement for
the reawakening of Muslims.
The Tablighi Jamaat, founded in 1920s by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas
Kandhalawi of Deoband school of Islamic thought, limited its missionary
activities initially to the Indian sub-continent. But in the last three
decades the Jamaat has expanded its movement to the USA, the UK, Australia and
other countries.
The Jamaat functions in two ways. In India the Jamaat concentrates mainly
on Muslims but in the West it takes up proselytising among non-Muslim
communities and invites them to the fold of Islam. Because of its missionary
style of functioning, various right wing groups like the VHP and the RSS
have always opposed the Jamaat. In fact, these groups have issued "stern
warnings" to the Jamaat.
Andhra Pradesh has been one of the important States for the Tablighi Jamaat
ever since its formation. Hyderabad, Kurnool, Kadapa and Guntur are its
strangleholds where it has a large following. Unlike other Muslim religious
organisations, Tablighi Jamaat believes in reawakening of faith and
purification of the self and the community.
Tablighi members fan out quite frequently to different parts of the country
and abroad to spread their message and ideology. Many Muslim
organisations do not see eye to eye with the Tablighi Jamaat not because of
the ideological differences but because of their one-upmanship.
Tablighi activists are not allowed into mosques by many mosque
communities and this has forced the Jamaat to have its own mosques
(Markaz).
A notable feature of the Jamaat is regular congregations (ijtema) it holds
around the world. The Bangladesh annual congregation is the biggest
gathering of humanity with a turnout of more than 40 lakh people. The last
ijtema in Hyderabad was held in 1994. It is now holding another international
conference after a gap of 13 years.
Senior educationist Yaser Amri points out, "the emergence of Tablighi
Jamaat was also a direct response to the rise of such aggressive Hindu
proselytising movements as Shuddhi and Sangathan, which launched massive
efforts in the early twentieth century to reconvert those Hindus who had
converted to Islam in the past. The Jamaat founder believed that only a
grassroots Islamic religious movement could counter it".