Comments by prominent personalities

Steve Denny, a former FBI agent and expert on Islam, commented that, “If al-Qaida needed a fresh set of bodies in order to pull an operation, one of the places that they would go to for that fresh set of bodies would be Tablighi Jamaat, whether it's in the United States or not.”[9]

Marc Gaborieau, the French Tablighi expert, has claimed that the Tablighi Jamaat’s ultimate objective is nothing short of a "planned conquest of the world" in the spirit of jihad. [Transnational Islamic Movements: Tablighi Jamaat in Politics," ISIM Newsletter, July 1999, p. 21.]

Olivier Roy, a prominent authority on Islam at Paris's prestigious Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, described Tablighi Jamaat as "completely apolitical and law abiding."

Alexis Debat, of the Nixon Centre, has said that, “If a terrorist has ties to Tabligh Jamaat, that doesn’t mean that’s where he learned his trade”, he said. “It just shows it’s becoming universal, a rite of passage for everyone.”[10]

Governments normally intolerant of independent movements often make an exception for Tablighi Jamaat. As the movement is so secretive, and always claims to be totally apolitical, always keeping out of media attention, it has managed to escape the attention of the authorities. Pakistani military officers, even allow Tablighi missionaries to preach in the barracks, showing that the movement is not as apolitical as it seems.^[3]

Concerns of Violence and Islamic Extremism

Main article: Tablighi Jamaat and allegations of terrorism

The organization is viewed with suspicion by those concerned with Islamism and related terrorism threats, while defenders contend the organization and its members are victims of religious persecution and Islamophobia. There are also arguments the organization as a whole is not responsible for the acts of a few isolated members, or that members are being arrested simply through charges of guilt by association.^[4]

Tablighi Jamaat is not a terrorist organisation. Growing out of the Deobandi school of Islam, Tablighi Jamaat stresses traditional Islamic practices based on how the Prophet Mohammad lived his life. These are linked linked to worship, dress and behaviour as a path to personal improvement. Thus, it easily attracts troubled, impressionable young men and instills them with extreme religious conviction. While the Tablighi Jamaat claims to be nonviolent, the zealotry of its recruits has proven easy for violent organizations to manipulate. Its missionary work, moreover, demands TJ members to travel throughout the world, including between Pakistan and many Western countries (some terrorist have used it as a cover to travel). The group assembles radical recruits and deposits them in places where they can be gathered by terrorist organizations. Some of these recruits have fought in jihadist wars; others have returned to the West with violent intentions. In spite of the criminal conduct of some of its adherents, Tablighi Jamaat itself remains a legal organization.[11]

Several of those arrested on August 9 in connection with the alleged plot to blow up airliners en route to America from Britain, had attended Tablighi study sessions in Britain. At least two of the British suicide bombers of July 7, 2005 — Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer — had worshipped at a Tablighi-run mosque in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. The failed British shoebomber, Richard Reid, is known to have Tablighi associations, while the path to violent radicalism of John Walker Lindh, now serving 20 years for treason, appears to have begun with his contact with Tablighi missionaries. In America, the activities of the Tablighi have been under close scrutiny for some time.[12]

An article in National Interest Online Alexis Debat of the The Nixon Center stated, "The organization is present in more than 80 countries, and about 99.9 percent of its activities are legitimate, peaceful and apolitical... It’s dedicated to improving society through individual development... They claim it’s not a political goal, but I’d argue that trying to change a society’s values is a political project, philosophically speaking." Attending a gathering, known as ijtima, in Pakistan he claimed, "I was told that, in the compound, Al-Qaeda came to raise money from Arab sheikhs and recruit foreign Muslims." Noting the difficulty separating out the violent extremists from the generally peaceful members, Debat added, "The question is how to root out the 0.1 percent that are terrorists without antagonizing the rest of the community."^[5]