Should we ban the Tableeghi Jamaat?

Coming from the Sharif government, it was an unkind cut for the Tableeghi Jamaat (TJ). Though the media-shy TJ has kept silent after the Punjab government banned its entry into educational institutions, two major religious parties, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl), have expressed their anger over the decision and moved adjournment motions in both houses of parliament.

The critics of the TJ, however, are not only happy but want the government to take more action against one of the world’s largest proselytising groups.

Many observers consider the TJ the first stop towards extremism while some international commentators have even blamed it of direct links with groups involved in violent extremism. More seasoned experts do not agree with these views. Oliver Roy, a renowned political sociologist considered an authority on Islamist movements, terms the TJ “completely apolitical and law abiding” and Barbara Metcalf, a well known historian, defines the group as “an apolitical, quietest movement of internal grassroots missionary renewal”.

Except for some lone wolves with a history of limited engagement with the TJ, there is no proof of the organisation’s involvement in any act of violent extremism in Pakistan or any other country. Interestingly, Islamist and extremist groups dislike the TJ for its lack of involvement in jihad and politics.

Since it was founded in 1927 by Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi in India, the group has solely focused on proselytising. Their targets are not non-Muslims but Muslims themselves. Though the group is an off-shoot of the Deoband movement, this single-minded obsession has earned it criticism even from some leading Deobandi scholars who hold that instead of proselytising, the group has ended up creating a religion of proselytism (Deen-e-Tableegh). Political Islamists also criticise it for abandoning worldly attachments and preferring instead to surrender themselves to the mercy of God.

Head of Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party Pas Tuan Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat (a graduate of Darul Ulum Deoband in India) sums up this criticism in the following words: “What I don’t accept about them is that they are too influenced by their history and their origin. (The) Tablighi Jamaat began in India and I find too many Hindu ideas and practices in their way of life, like begging and staying in mosques….they preach a doctrine of poverty but this idea is disempowering. …They also stay in mosques... They think it makes them pious, but they forget that if a man is not in house then all kind of bad things can happen...”

At one level, the Tableeghi Jamaat is a relic of the past – Deoband frozen in time. The group still follows an ascetic way of life and many sufi practices of early twentieth century Deoband that are hard to find in the mainstream of the sect today. The Tableeghi Jamaat does not carry out any scholarly activity and relies on only one book ‘Fazail-e-Aamal’. The book is full of miracles of saints and that may be the reason that a different book – Riazus Saliheen – is taught to members of Arab origin. Interestingly, the TJ not only avoids scholarship but also scholars, often angering the ulema who find their authority challenged.

The most interesting aspect of the group’s teaching is its denial of human agency. “Whatever happens, happens from the Almighty. No one other than God can do anything.” This extreme fatalism keeps the Tableeghis focused on prayers and proselytising, away from the arena of action. I was told by an official of a relief organisation that in the wake of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the TJ declined a request for help in providing relief to the people affected by the calamity.

By creating a religious sub-culture and an alternative to mainstream society, the group provides an escape from the troubles of daily life. However, this often happens at the cost of people’s ‘worldly’ responsibilities. Tableeghis are notorious for neglecting their families and professions, providing a textbook example of Marx’s famous comment on the sedative effects of religions and Iqbal’s criticism on a monastic way of life. However, they are often able to get jobs and keep their businesses running due to public respect for their religiosity and their honesty in a society where trust is a rare commodity.

The TJ also succeeds in attracting many men of action, who usually remain casual customers. Mian Mohamamd Sharif, self-made business tycoon and late father of the prime minister, was very close to the group. The group has been able to enlist a number of serving and retired generals as well as a number of cricketers. Perhaps, the oversupply of adrenaline in their systems works as a push factor while the TJ serves the function of a spiritual healer.

Is the Tableeghi Jamaat totally benign? I think not. I have seen careers destroyed and families torn apart due to an individual’s total obsession with the TJ’s mission. The real harm to society, arguably, comes from the fact that the group encourages people to throw local rituals and customs out of the window. This creates a vacuum that extremists can fill by promoting their cult of death. I have seen high incidence of crimes against women in areas where adult men in almost every family are associated with the TJ.

It is also true that many areas where the TJ is extremely popular have become hotbeds of terrorism. But we should be careful in confusing correlation with causation – and what I have said above remains my opinion based on anecdotal evidence. Freedom of association and the freedom of religion cannot be compromised on such indirect harm. The state should promote cultural activities and create cultural resilience against such onslaughts rather than denying basic rights to any group.

While harm from the TJ is a matter of opinion, there are groups that have tormented our campuses for decades and the state has not been able to do anything about them. The Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT), the student wing of the JI, remains the uncrowned king of such organisations followed by student wings of nationalist political groups. Student unions are banned, but these groups hijack colleges and university campuses and take over many administrative functions.

Students at such campuses live in constant fear; violence is a reality and students’ academic freedom, freedom of association and freedom of expression is taken away. At many of these institutions, even teachers are appointed by these student groups and PhDs are granted by their nod. One such campus, the University of Punjab, is located on the Khadim-e-Ala’s route to his office.

Some organisations might have surpassed the IJT in their ferocity but young Jamaatis remain their model. Sixty-seven years ago the IJT started as a student wing of the JI; today the JI is merely a super league of its student wing. Perhaps, the JI will never be able to realise how much damage it has done to itself through its student wing by alienating middle-class parents who send their children to these campuses.

By going after the poor Tableeghis, the Punjab government has only made the job of the IJT easier, which has always been irritated by the Tableeghis but found it hard to rough them up. Security may be all important but tilting at windmills cannot rid us of the giants that lurk behind curtains or hide under the bed (or inside the bed for that matter) – or find their place in official textbooks.

The writer is a socialanthropologist anddevelopment professional.

Email: zaighamkhan@yahoo.com

Twitter: @zaighamkhan