Media discourse on Deobandi terrorism: 23-29 June 2014
The Economist
Under the spotlight
Jun – 28th 2014
The book’s title reflects the surreal ways in which the fissures of Islam’s heartland are reproduced in Britain. Ms Bowen explains that Shia Muslims congregate in three districts of north London, and in a memorable passage describes the rapturous singing and leaping that take place in Birmingham among admirers of a Moroccan Sufi sheikh.
As she recalls, the main strains in British Islam have roots in spiritual or political movements that started in South Asia, but have morphed unpredictably. Most British mosques hew either to the Deobandi or Barelvi schools of Sunni Islam. Both began in the 19th century under the British Raj: the former school is strict and puritanical, the latter more folksy in its worship. The Deobandis have a strong, traditionalist influence over Muslim teaching in Britain and Pakistan. Their ethos affects many of Birmingham’s schools. Still, as the book shows, Deobandis come in many varieties: they can be pietistical and otherworldly, politicised or militant. The Barelvis see themselves as the moderate face of British Islam, but they have very few hardline moments too.
Using Ms Bowen’s road-map, it becomes easier to understand the paradoxes of Muslim Britain. Leicester, for example, is home to many immigrants of South Asian origin who arrived via Africa. Some have flourished in local affairs, but behind this forward-looking façade lies some deep, Deobandi-inspired conservatism.
Source :
www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21605878-under-spotlight
The Nation
The return of the Allama – by M.A.Niazi
June 27, 2014 – The Nation
Rightside News
UK : How We Want to Stop Redical Islam – Irfan Al-Alawi – 24 June 2014
The most important issue is the proposed mosque’s patronage by Tablighi Jamaat [TJ], a group based on the radical doctrines of the Deobandi sect, which inspires the Taliban and other terrorist groups.
Deobandis, the progenitors of TJ, have been fighting for control of the British Muslim Community. TJ has made clear that its interest is not that of serving the Muslims’ spiritual needs, but of creating a Western European base.
Since the time of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslims who emigrate to non-Muslim lands have been called on to accept the laws and customs of the country to which they move. British Muslims have stood up in the past against the proposed TJ mega-mosque; they have a duty to protect their community and the broader society in which they live by repudiating all extremist doctrines, and by repairing conflicts with their non-Muslim neighbours.
Source :
Pak Observer
Loudspeaker & the voice behind – Professor Alya Alvi
In the last Friday sermon, I heard the Imam inciting the public against Operation Zarb e Azb, which has been no doubt started with full public and government support. The government must check such a sensitive aspect of society. The fact that most of the Deobandi school of thought’s passed out lot has maneuvered to occupy most of the mosques across Pakistan, their inner allegiance and support for the Taliban who are from the same school of thought is obvious. These are virtually the supply lines of terrorism that provide oxygen to extremism. The government must take the initiative as early as possible.
Source :
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=245324
Deccan Herald
Muslim clerics too jump into Sai Baba controversy – Sanjay Pandey June 24, 2014
After the Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati’s controversial remarks on Shirdi Sai Baba, Muslim clerics have also joined the issue and said that people from their community must not attend Sai Sandhya, an evening prayer session organised by the disciples of Sai Baba.
The clerics associated with the prestigious Islamic seminary Darul Uloom in Deoband said it was improper to recite the word Allah at Sai Sandhya. “It is un-Islamic to recite the word”, said Senior Cleric at Deoband, Arif Quasmi. The cleric said that one should pay obeisance and worship one’s god in accordance with his or her own religion.
Source :
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/415757/muslim-clerics-too-jump-sai.html
NITI Central
Madarsa modernisation: Masterstroke to address Muslim aspiration – Aliya Abbas – 11 Jun 2014
According to news report published in The Times of India, Darul Uloom Deoband, which has been campaigning extensively against the modernisation of madarsas across the country, has sought clarification from the Government over its ‘National Madrassa Modernisation Programme’. They are giving excuses like there is no clarity over Government’s programme and which madarsa will come under its umbrella, without realising they are pushing the community into darkness without providing them with a viable option of development.
Source :
Eurasia Review
Change of Government In Delhi: Failure Of Vote Bank Politics? – Analysis – June 5, 2014
The change of government led by the Bhartiya Janata Party now, is perhaps a third chapter for the Indian Muslims. Are they still in the same situation as they were at the end of the last two chapters? It may not be so this time, but what is important is that this election for the first time over turned the vote bank politics practised by almost all the political parties. The first chapter was the loss of Islamic power to the British in 1857 when Muslim intellectuals gave two parallel wake-up calls to the community. The call was in form of Deoband Movement for educating the community in puritan Islam with an objective to revive the lost Islamic rule in the sub-continent.
Source :
http://www.eurasiareview.com/05062014-change-government-delhi-failure-vote-bank-politics-analysis/
Pakistan Today
Some myths about Muslims – Nivedita Menon – June 17, 2014
Myth: Muslims got ‘their’ country when Pakistan was created, now they should leave ‘our’ country.
The first active political leaders to talk of separate countries for Muslims and Hindus were those who would later be part of the Hindu Mahasabha. Bhai Paramanand, later president of the Mahasabha, demanded this in 1905. The demand for Pakistan did not emerge from the Muslim League until 1940, and then as well it was a political demand by a political party. Huge numbers of Muslims opposed the idea of Pakistan, including the biggest Islamic religious school in India – the Deoband seminary – and President of the Congress party, Maulana Azad, who was one of India’s greatest freedom fighters. The demand for Pakistan was a demand by a political party, not a demand by Muslims as a whole.
Source :
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2014/06/17/comment/some-myths-about-muslims/
Kangla Online, 29 June 2014
Warrior State, Pakistan
By B.G. Verghese
Pakistan, an “Islamic State”, was born to defend Islam and the “ideological frontiers of Islam” . But it is even today unable to define the true Muslim: not Ahmediyas (banned), Shias, Sufis, Aga Khanis, Nurbakshis; not even Sunni Barelivis but Wahabis, Deobandis, jihadis, the Taliban and such medieval fanatics whose goal is to establish a new Caliphate. The defence of Islam and its borders and integrity against a malign India, the permanent enemy, has reduced Pakistan to a garrison state where a military-mullah nexus has assumed control. The Army, aided by the Inter-Service Intelligence or ISI, together constitute a state within a state with vast, agrarian, corporate, financial, administrative, diplomatic and security tentacles.
http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/warrior-state-pakistan/
The News, 29 June 2014
More thoughts on Takfir — Tahir Kamran
Initially, the practice of takfir remained notional because, with the British at the helm, the translation of the notional into the realm of the political could have been dangerous, and so takfir was not practically articulated with such impunity as it was in independent Pakistan, a country ostensibly founded in the name of Islam. In that particular context, one may argue, the Fatwas of Ahmed Raza Khan Barelwi (Fatawa Rizvia), intended to declare everyone but his own sect as kafir, could not trigger violence. Despite differences, the sects mostly remained at peace with each other, barring some instances of Shia-Sunni (read Deobandi-Ahrari) clashes in UP during the 1930s.
Another critique is from a very good friend saying that the whole Muslim world has been seen in “Deobandi-bashing perspective” whereas the Arab world and North Africa hardly care about Deobandi discourse. He may be right in saying so. Despite the seeming nonchalance for the Deobandi discourse, one must be mindful of its Pan-Islamic influence from the turn of the 20th century.
Famous Islamic scholar Rashid ul Rida’s visit to Deoband in 1912, and his amiable interaction with the head teacher of Darul Ulum Deoband, Anwar Shah Kashmiri, and the subsequent tribute he paid to Ubaidullah Sindhi in his journal al-Manar says a lot about the nexus that Deoband had with the wider Muslim world. Later on, Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi, educated at Nadwatul Ulama but a Deobandi luminary too, was held in very high esteem in the Arab world because of his scholarship in Islam.
It is well known that Manzur Nomani’s takfiri treatise Irani Inqilab was commissioned by a ‘Muslim brother country’ and, later on, translated versions were arranged and circulated in several languages. Sipah-e-Sahaba operatives and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi are the splinter groups of a Deobandi political party — the latter group allegedly having links with al Qaeda.
The Afghan jihad and its aftermath brought Deobandis and Arab extremist elements very close, which is now hurting Pakistan very badly. One should not be surprised to find Deobandi-inspired Pakistani youths fighting as far as Chechnya, Iraq, Syria or any conceivable place on earth, ostensibly to revive the glory of Islam. The glory of Islam cannot be brought about by fighting with weapons and other technological instruments manufactured as a result of knowledge produced at Western academies. In order to equip oneself with knowledge, peace is a prerequisite for which one has to communicate, not fight.
http://tns.thenews.com.pk/more-thoughts-takfir-and-terrorism/
In as early as 2007, a study revealed that 600 of 1,350 mosques in Britain are run under the Deobandi school of thought, spreading hatred towards the West and anti-Semitic propaganda. The British intelligence leaked at the time that the Tablighi Jamaat movement, which is in charge of building a mega-mosque in London, is recruiting members to al-Qaeda.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/17739/london-isis-radicalization-riddle/#EUi4yrkoPi05T5EB.99