Tablighi Jamaat: Missionaries of Islam or Islamic radicalism? 

The Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi has led to a sudden spurt in the number of positive COVID-19 cases across the country. An FIR has been registered against Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad and others under the Epidemic Disease Act.

Over 65 per cent of the rise in COVID-19 cases over last week have been directly linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event in New Delhi. States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Assam and even Jharkhand has reported COVID-19 positive cases linked to people who travelled to Nizamuddin Markaz.

GoaChronicle in its investigations into Tablighi Jamaat uncovered a diabolic interior to the saintly exterior portrayed by the organisation. Some members linked to terror attacks in US and UK inspired by the indoctrination of a radical strain of Islam:

Tablighi Jamaat or Jamaat Tablighi (as referred to in the global intelligence network) was created in the late 1920s in India to be an apolitical and piety-driven organisation. 

The mission of Tablighi Jamaat was to send Islamic missionaries across the globe to proselytise with an intent to bring Muslims who were lost from core  purpose of Islam back to Islamic orthodox practices and beliefs.

Today, Tablighi Jamaat is spread over 150 countries in the world with millions of members roughly estimated at over 85 million. 

The basic focus of the Tablighi Jamaat theology is that it emphasis that Muslims must first devote themselves to becoming good, practicing Muslims in their own personal lives, rather than struggling for political power or even protesting oppression by non-Muslims.

Tablighi Jamaat to the average eye, appears to lack coherent organization. It has no membership rolls or mailing lists, no written constitution or bylaws, no fundraising apparatus, no computers, and no slick publicity. The central headquarters is in Nizamuddin in Delhi, and the major subsidiary hubs are in Raiwand outside Lahore and at the Kakrail mosque in downtown Dhaka.

Contrary to the impression created outwardly that Tablighi Jamaat is not an organised group of belief, it is an intricate and effective network that has been working over the decades. The networks through Madrasas, Gushti (Kinship Networks) and Markazes.

In a Wikileaks cables titled ‘The Global Intelligence Files’ released on 2013-11-15. The hidden face of Tablighi Jamaat came to light. The cable was reported in 2008. Since 2008, US Intelligence has been keeping a vigilant eye on Tablighi Jamaat movements and conventions globally.

The Wikileaks cable stated, “Although everything openly known about Tablighi Jamaat may support your conclusions, and they may be openly apolitical, the fact that they are urging ‘average Muslims to examine their own lives and become involved in calling their fellow Muslims back to orthodox Islam’ pretty much means they share in the goals and mandate of Islam which is to convert, subjugate, or eliminate non Muslims from the face of the earth. 

That is and always will be the goal and mandate of Islam and Islam supports any means used to accomplish the goal. If you couple that with another mandate of Islam, which is that in any conflict between a Muslim and a Non-Muslim, the Muslim must always side with the Muslim. Any form of lying or deception is acceptable if it is used to support the side of the Muslim and Islam. So, even if apolitical, they are still in support of Islamic terrorists and I am sure well aware of their roll in the Islamic war against all non-Muslims.”

In a note released by the US Department of Defense in 2007 in position with GoaChronicle about Guatamamo Bay stated that Al-Qaeda suspects of the 9/11 attack detained by the US in Guantanamo Bay had stayed in the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Nizamuddin West, New Delhi, years ago. The detainee had revealed, “They stayed in Pakistan for a month and then traveled to New Delhi, India, where they stayedat JT (Jamaat Tablighi) headquartersin Nizam-e-Alden (Nizamuddin) for a month. While in New Delhi, detainee was introduced to the leader of the JT and asked to make a life commitment to the organisation. Detainee to JT that he needed to think about because he did not want to commit his life to servitude, pilgrimage and missionary work. Detainee returned to Lahore for two weeks and then traveled to SaudiArabia” 

The US intelligence network has standing collection requirements against Tablighi activities around the world to determine whether Tablighi Jamaat branches serve as witting or unwitting accomplices of international terrorists who use the organisation’s global connections to recruit members and travel under the cover of missionary work.

Within the Shia Muslims community Tablighi Jamaat is viewed as the largest source of terror in South Asia, a Wikileaks cable dated March 19, 2008 from New Delhi revealed.

In a Wikileaks cables – The Global Intelligence Files’ released on 11.03.2013. It revealed the link of the terror attack on Glasgow International Airport and Tablighi Jamaat:

“Dr. Bilal Talal Samad Abdullah was a suspect arrested after the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack. Dr. Abdullah and the driver of the Jeep Cherokee rammed into the terminal and set it ablaze, engineer Kafeel Ahmed, critically ill with burns after the attack, are believed by police to have been responsible for leaving car bombs in London two days earlier.

Kafeel Ahmed, aka Khalid Ahmed and Khaled Ahmad, (b. Jan 1 1979) was born and raised in Bangalore, India  and is an Indian engineer who was studying for a PhD in computational fluid dynamics. He is often mistakenly referred to as a doctor. He was arrested in Great Britain in the aftermath of the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack.

Kafeel Ahmed was a member of Tablighi Jamaat. 

Another suspect Dr Sabeel Ahmed was also a member of Tablighi Jamaat.”

The USA Intelligence have evidence of al-Qaeda operatives using the movement’s of Tablighi Jamaat global reach and its history of travelling missionaries in order to travel without attracting suspicion 

In an important note circulated in the US Intelligence networks in June 2008 ( in possession of GoaChronicle) stated “Affiliation with the JT has been identified as an Al- Qaeda cover story. Al-Qaeda used the JT to facilitate and fund the international travels of its members. More recently, the JT has been linked to the 11 July 2006 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India in which at least 207 people were killed and over 800 injured. As an organization, the JT does not advocate violence; however, numerous extremist and terrorist organisations, including al-Qaida, have exploited JT’s worldwide presence to facilitate international travels.”

That Tablighi Jamaat members have been caught involved in terror attacks globally in US and UK is not a secret. The moot question is whether Tablighi Jamaat under the guise of being a religious organisation is through a process of indoctrination leading some of its overzealous members to a path of terrorism.