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Home Front
A Muslim Missionary Group Draws New Scrutiny in U.S.
2003-07-14
Heavily edited.
The name Tablighi Jamaat is Arabic for the "group that propagates the faith," and its members visit mosques and college campuses in small missionary bands, preaching a return to purist Islamic values and recruiting other Muslim men — often young men searching for identity — to join them for a few days or weeks on the road.
I love it when people go "searching for identity." I always want to ask, "Where was it last time you saw it? Did you look behind the couch?"
"We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat in the United States, and we have found that Al Qaeda used them for recruiting, now and in the past," said Michael J. Heimbach, the deputy chief of the F.B.I.’s international terrorism section.
So turn them or shut ’em down.
The official added, "Then extremists use that as an assessment tool to evaluate individuals with particular zealousness and interest in going beyond what’s offered."
They're called funnels...
"It’s a very great accusation, a total lie," said Abdul Rahman Khan, a leader of the group’s North American leadership council. "Anybody who has been active in our work, who spends at least three days, will have an understanding of our peaceful nature."
Islam means peace, you silly kafirs.
"Lies! All lies!"
They preach a return to the teachings and trappings of Islam’s seventh-century founders, including segregation of women and rejection of activities like voting that they say distract Muslims from the worthier task of preparing for judgment day.
I think the seventh century thing gives it away. I mean in case you had any doubts.
"What we’re trying to do is unite the hearts of all people, and politics has a propensity to divide," said Walid-Muhammad Scott, a Philadelphia activist who is a member of the leadership council. "That’s why we don’t talk about it at all."
Politics have no place in the Khalifa. Nor do mini-skirts, beer, bikinis or naughty pictures.
Meanwhile, three Tabligh acolytes huddled over coffee in a Mexican restaurant across the street... Sprouting a small reddish beard and dressed in a long tunic and loose trousers, he said Tablighi Jamaat had rescued him from drugs. Now, he said, his name is Ali Abdullah and his dream is to study Islam in Pakistan.
Clue alert
"I want to be in a Muslim environment," he explained. Was he also interested in political causes like Chechnya, Kashmir or the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? "Man, I know I’d kill anybody who killed another Muslim," he blurted, rapping a quick drumbeat with his hand on the table. His two companions glared at him. One kicked him sharply under the table.
"Fool. You gave our secret plan for dire revenge to the kafir! There is only one way for you to redeem yourself now..." Laughed out loud, as those crazy kids on the Internet say.
Posted by:11A5S

#6  Thanks, Paul, for the excellent link.

I can't understand why someone isn't pumping money into the Brelvi/Sufi madrassahs and mosques to counter the Wahhabi/Salafi/Deobandi influence.
Posted by: 11A5S   2003-7-14 2:12:11 PM  

#5  --often young men searching for identity--

Ahhh, living the California dream.
Posted by: Anonymous   2003-7-14 1:47:17 PM  

#4  These are barbarians in our midst who use the very freedom they wish to destroy as a weapon.
Posted by: SPQR 2755   2003-7-14 10:42:46 AM  

#3  "What we’re trying to do is unite the hearts of all people, and politics has a propensity to divide,"

That Shia/Sunni thing is soooo political.
Posted by: Pink & Fluffy   2003-7-14 10:37:45 AM  

#2  he said Tablighi Jamaat had rescued him from drugs.

Correction: A mental drug was simply substituted for chemical drugs.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2003-7-14 10:05:24 AM  

#1  The Tablighi Jamaat started out as a non-violent movement aimed at 'purifying' those Indians who practised a mixture of Islam and Hinduism. It was in reaction to Hindu organisations who wanted to 'purify' the waverers into accepting Hinduism.
From this article on the TJ
an investigative report...brought to light for the first time the nexus between the TJ and the Harkat ul Mujahideen and their role in supporting Islamic extremist movements in different countries. He quoted office-bearers of the HUM: "Ours is basically a Sunni organisation close to the Deobandi school of thought. Our people are mostly impressed by the TJ. Most of our workers do come from the TJ. We regularly go to its annual meeting at Raiwind. Ours is a truly international network of genuine jehadi Muslims. We believe frontiers can never divide Muslims. They are one nation. They will remain a single entity.
The report also quoted the office-bearers as claiming that among foreign volunteers trained by them in their training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan were 16 African-American Muslims from various cities of the US and that funds for their activities mostly came from Muslim businessmen of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UK.
The February 1998, issue of the "Newsline", a monthly of Pakistan, quoted workers of the TJ as saying that the TJ had many offices in the US, Russia, the Central Asian Republics, South Africa, Australia and France and that many members of the Chechen Cabinet, including the Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya, were workers of the TJ and participated in its proselytising activities. . One of them, merely identified as Khalil, said: " It is possible that France may become a Muslim state within my lifetime, due to the great momentum of Tablighi activity there."

The article also claims that the major cause of the upsurge in Islamic extremism in Central Asia and the Caucasus that occured after the Soviet Union collapsed, was the presence of hundreds of TJ preachers. It also states that among it's members was Javid Nassir, the then head of the ISI, who was forced out by the Clinton administration due to Nassir providing unused Stinger missiles from Afghanistan to Bosnian Muslims instead of returning them to the CIA.
Posted by: Paul Moloney   2003-7-14 2:35:33 AM  

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