Media Discourse on Deobandi Terrorism – 05 – 21 Sep 2014 –
Why are Muslims Fighting Against Each others ?
Tunde Agara
There are thousands of current practitioners of Wahhabism. Most citizens of Saudi Arabia, including hundreds of members of the royal family, practice Wahhabism. According to Stephen Schwartz in an October 6, 2001 Spectator article, all recent acts of terrorism were enacted by Wahhabis: Bin Laden was a Wahhabi. So are the suicide bombers in Israel, [bin Laden’s] Egyptian allies, who exulted as they stabbed foreign tourists to death at Luxor not many years ago, bathing in blood up to their elbows and emitting blasphemous cries of ecstasy, the Algerian Islamist terrorists whose contribution to the purification of the world consisted of murdering people for such sins as running a movie projector or reading secular newspapers, and the Taliban-style guerrillas in Kashmir who murder Hindus. According to some sources, the Taliban do not practice Wahhabism, but belong to what is known as the Deobandi movement, named after a small town in the Indian Himalayas where it was founded in 1860 during British rule. Although similar to Wahhabism, it is an unusually strict form of Sunni Islam. The followers of both the Deobandi and Wahhabi movements make sharp distinctions between revealed sacred knowledge and human knowledge and thus exclude any learning that does not appear sacred. Deobandi philosophy helped spawn many other fundamentalist groups in the Muslim world including the Taliban in Afghanistan, although the Afghans have been part of the Deobandi movement since its beginning. Over time, Deobandi philosophy has changed toward more orthodoxy and militant fundamentalism.
Obviously, the term Wahhabi has pejorative connotations and Saudis do not use it, preferring to call themselves Unitarians — believers in one indivisible deity. The violence inflicted because of Deobandi and Wahhabi religious ideology is substantial, to say the least. Among the thousands of quotes given and articles written about Islamic fundamentalism after September 11th, one particular statement sums up the religious connection: Not all Muslims are suicide bombers, but all Muslim suicide bombers are Wahhabis. No one can dispute the violence that this belief system has inspired and continues to inspire. Unfortunately, we have all become familiar with the names of terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Armed Islamic Group, Harakat ul-Mujahidin (Pakistan) and Abu Sayyaf (Philippines), all of which were linked to bin Laden. The violence perpetrated by these groups includes many incidents of suicide bombings, kidnappings, hijackings and murders.
Religious Beliefs and Sects in Islam
Today, sectarian differences have led to the emergence of over 70 different Islamic religious sects and traditional schools of Islamic faith. These include such diverse and little known sects such as the Islamilis, Zaidis, Fatimids, Nizari, Deobandi, Alawis, Druze, Baha’i World Faith, Ahmadis, and Black Muslim Movement (Nation of Islam). However, the well known and major ones are the Sunnis, the Shi’as and Sufis. We shall look at these sects and their core teachings as this formed the root of not only sectarian differences but religious disagreement and terrorism. However, in spite of the sectarian differences and claims and counter-claims of apostasy, a unifying factor of all the Muslim faithful irrespective of doctrinaire teachings and dissent is the adherent to the Five Pillars of Islam which are (1)shahahda, (witnessing or testifying to the Muslim creed), (2) salat (formal prayer or worship, alone or communally), (3) sawm (fasting during the month of the Ramadan), (4) zakat (alms giving in proportion to one’s wealth) and (5) hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime). Muslims are not totally agreed although some emergent sects believed that the jihad which called on all Muslim faithful to struggle justly or strive justly for God, sometimes translated as holy war, constitutes the sixth pillar. While this is used to justify the prevailing terrorists’ acts and hatred for western civilisation, it must be noted that it is not generally accepted by all Muslims.
Source:
http://www.osundefender.org/?p=187616
Dawn
15th Sep,2014
Moreover, across Sindh, waderos with political ambitions are also willing to highlight the sectarian affiliations of rivals to win the support of Deobandi groups who have growing influence in the province, and can rally voters on the basis of ideology or through intimidation.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1131972
Punjabi Taliban give up ‘armed struggle’
Dawn
14th Sep,2014
The term “Punjabi Taliban” is generally applied to distinguish Pakhtun and Afghan fighters from mainly Punjab-based Deobandi militants who are, or once were, involved in sectarian violence or focused on jihad in India-held Kashmir. According to analysts, sometimes the term is also loosely used to include the Urdu-speaking, Kashmiri and even Bengali fighters. Some groups which are part of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Punjab are closely linked to Al Qaeda, they say.
Source:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1131866/punjabi-taliban-give-up-armed-struggle
Informing about the breakup of the madaris, they said there are approximately 7,710 Deobandi, 5m000 Barelvi, 2,000 Ahle Hadith and 260 Shia religious seminaries operating in Punjab. The religious seminaries are imparting education of both ‘Darse Nizami and Quran Recitation, according to the fresh data collection.
Source:
http://nation.com.pk/lahore/13-Sep-2014/agencies-broaden-information-gathering-scope
AQIS: A Possible Al Qaeda Resurgence In South Asia? – Analysis
Isha Sharma
11th Sep,2014
In order to strengthen the jihadist movement, al Qaeda is trying to normalise its relations with the Afghan Taliban as is evident from Zawahiri’s pledge of renewed loyalty to Mullah Omar. This move represents the possible tactic of using Afghanistan as the theatre of jihad and penetrating into the other countries of the Indian subcontinent. The spread of Deobandi jihadism in the region has an immense capability of providing an impetus to the activities of AQIS as the organisations which belong to this school have at some point or the other worked in tandem with al Qaeda. For instance, Fazlur Rahman Khalil, the leader of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HM), was one of the signatories of the 1998 Fatwa issued against the U.S. by bin Laden. HM has been active in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and southern Thailand and it has gradually increased its membership recruiting new cadres from these countries.
Source:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/11092014-aqis-possible-al-qaeda-resurgence-south-asia-analysis-2/
View from Pakistan : New Formations
Muhammad Amir Rana
September 09, 2014
The phenomenon of Jundallah is important in this perspective. Many groups are operating with the name of Jundallah in Pakistan, similar to Punjabi Taliban groups. While the Punjabi Taliban emerged from the Deobandi and Salafi militant groups, Jundallah groups are breakaway factions of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and its subsidiary student and militant wings. With their Islamist background, they are naturally inclined towards the IS, and like a few commanders of the Hizb-i-Islami — a JI affiliate in Afghanistan — intend to announce their allegiance to the IS.
Source:
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140909/commentary-columnists/article/view-pakistan-new-formations
AQIS : A possible Alqaida Resurgence in South Asia
Isha Sharma
In order to strengthen the jihadist movement, al Qaeda is trying to normalise its relations with the Afghan Taliban as is evident from Zawahiri’s pledge of renewed loyalty to Mullah Omar. This move represents the possible tactic of using Afghanistan as the theatre of jihad and penetrating into the other countries of the Indian subcontinent. The spread of Deobandi jihadism in the region has an immense capability of providing an impetus to the activities of AQIS as the organisations which belong to this school have at some point or the other worked in tandem with al Qaeda. For instance, Fazlur Rahman Khalil, the leader of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HM), was one of the signatories of the 1998 Fatwa issued against the U.S. by bin Laden. HM has been active in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and southern Thailand and it has gradually increased its membership recruiting new cadres from these countries.
Why India’s Muslims are so Moderate
A.R
A combination of factors explains it. Islam in South Asia has a long history, over 1,000 years, but was long dominated by Sufis who integrated closely with non-Muslim Hindus, sharing many cultural practices. In Pakistan, decades of large-scale migration to the Gulf along with close political ties to Saudi Arabia saw harder forms of Sunni Islam adopted, notably the spread of Wahhabi and Deobandi mosques, madrassas and beliefs. By contrast many Indian Muslim migrants to the Gulf, for example from Kerala, have proved less effective at reimporting harder-line forms of Islam on a large scale. Indian madrassas appear to be under more watchful eyes of the state. It is crucial, too, that India—unlike Pakistan and many other countries with large Muslim populations—has long remained as a robust and lively democracy. A secular constitution and the electoral clout of a sizeable minority helps give Muslims in India a stake in the political system. Many are also intensely proud to be Indian, even if a few support Pakistan’s cricket team. Targeted government welfare schemes to assist “backward” Muslim groups may help too. The election this year of Hindu nationalist, Narendra Modi, as prime minister has not cheered Indian Muslims. But his promise to treat the secular constitution as his “bible” helps to put a limit on anxiety. Perhaps as important, as Indian Muslims are widely dispersed around the country, they are in a small but not insignificant minority almost everywhere: that fact encourages both majority Hindus and Muslims mostly to rub along together, since extremism would prove disruptive for just about everyone.
Source:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/09/economist-explains-3
Triumph of democracy
“Five years back, the Americans and the Canadians decided to unite the two schools of Islamic thought under Tahirul Qadri’s leadership, as a counter to the emerging Deobandi and Salafi alliance in Afghanistan and Pakistan prior to the drawdown from Afghanistan. Qadri was picked up for this job and sent on a promotional tour of Europe, Denmark and Iran, where he recruited many activists to his cause. The book Kwarji Threat was published and circulated in thousands. Armed with this support, Qadri visited Pakistan where foreign intelligence and NGOs helped him develop his contacts into our media, security establishments, institutions and politicians. Thus the maverick Minhajul Quran clergy was launched in 2013 to sabotage the coming general elections but failed. He returned to Pakistan this year, further bolstered by his masters’ support and the support of the newly recruited Pakistani activists, to dislodge the elected government.”
Kafir…Kafir…….Shia..Kafir