Readings - English

The Wahhabi Terror

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Dr. KHURSHID ANWAR

“All the Muslims residing in India should be categorised by the government either as untouchable or Malechcha and they should be treated as per Manu’s law. They should not be allowed in any government services and even their rights of citizenship should be terminated.” Anyone can confuse this to be the speech of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. However, the RSS ideology reflects in the words of Guru Golvalkar as thus; “….foreign races in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment –not even citizen’s rights.”. The example has been sited from the book “We or our nationhood defined”. But the earlier citation which reflects the same ideology as the lower one comes from the speech of Maulana Maudoodi. The person being talked about is a very respectable man among the Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband and the Wahabis ofPakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia who use his ideologies and writings as their life philosophy.

Maudoodi gave this statement infront of an inquiry committee which was formed to investigate the riots targeting the Ahmediya community in 1953. It is noteworthy that Maulana Maudoodi was sentenced to death, in the massacre case of Ahmediya community, which was later cancelled due to the interference of Saudi Arabia.

The topic of discussion here is neither Maudoodi nor Golvalkar, rather it is the ideology that propagates hate and gives birth to extremist individuals and organisations. On one hand innumerable Saraswati Shishu Mandirs are mushrooming, brainwashing youngsters into fascist forces and on the other hand people are being mislead in the name of Islam and its propagation. Such activities lead to nothing more than creation of thousands of barbarians who are ready to end not just their own life but the lives of millions and millions in the name of religion. The education provided by the Wahabi serves the same purpose that the education in Saraswati Vidya Mandir has does. India has been replicating Pakistan in the way it has been preparing brain washed youths through education in madarsas, colleges and universities.   

Let’s consider the example of Darul-Uloom which is considered the biggest centre of education in Islam. The Darul Uloom website says “There is no scope of teaching modern sciences in Darul Uloom and our answer to people who oppose it is that the disease should be treated first and foremost, but if there is no disease there is no sense of a cure. ……what is the purpose of these government schools! What is the whole purpose if religious sciences are not being taught?” The books being taught here in the name of science are: - Sahih-e-Bukhari, Sahih-e-Muslim, Jama-e-Timriji, Sunan-e-Abi-Daud, Sunan-e-Nasai etc. And the people whose works are being taught here as the works of scientists and social scientists include Hazrat Gangohi, Hazrat Sheikhul Hind and Syed Anwar Shah Kashmiri. It won’t be hard to guess the kind of mindset a student will have after receiving such standard of education at Darul Uloom. Not just that, the syllabus recommending division of Darul Uloom states “The non Muslims gather knowledge to gain power, fame, progress and grandeur. Knowledge is only a source of earning money for the non Muslims, while for a Muslim knowledge is not even a way to earn livelihood rather it’s the attainment of the final destination. These examples have been taken up from the “Educational features of Darul Uloom” available on the internet.

It’s a weird coincidence that the Darul Uloom located in Karachi preaches the same. The same course structures the same teaching methodology. The madarsas of Darul Uloom, Karachi is spread all over Pakistan in the similar fashion as the Darul Uloom, Deoband madarsas are spread all over India. While Darul Uloom, Deoband has refuted the fact that they receive any funding from Saudi Arabia, Darul Uloom, Karachi has never shied away from this fact. Darul Uloom, Karachi not only has the permission from the government to receive direct funding from Saudi Arabia but they also receive the petrodollars given to the Sipah-e-Sahba and Al-Qaeda. There is only one difference that separates the Darul Uloom in India and Pakistan which is that the Darul Uloom, Deoband is not involved in any kind of arms training while the Darul Uloom, Karachi imparts arms and ammunitions training to its students under the patronage of Sipah-e-Sahba and Al-Qaeda. But as far as the ideological standards are concerned, all such madarsas and the followers of extremist Islam produced in such madarsas set Darul Uloom, Deoband as the parameter.

The Darul Uloom, Deoband has adopted such a stand on the issue of neither being Wahabi that neither they deny it completely nor are ready to accept the fact. But the “outspoken” nature of the Deobandi intellectual Maulana Manzoor Nomani makes it quite clear that Darul Uloom is the promoter of nothing other than the Wahabi ideology. He states “We should keep an eye on these so called Muslims who worship the shrines and Tazias. The Satan has influenced them to believe in polytheism and they do not believe in the Quran or the Hadith. It is these so called Muslims who have made us clear about the meaning of ‘Shirk’ (not believing in monotheism). It would have been difficult for us to understand the meaning of ‘Shirk’ if such Muslims had not been there (This is an excerpt from a statement of Maulana Nomani published in the editorial of the Deoband mouthpiece “Al-Fukran”).

It is quite obvious that Wahabi is the only community which categorises the visiting of shrines and believing in Tazias as idol worship. Tazia is an integral part of the belief of the Shia Muslims and is observed for two months and eight days starting from the first day of the month of Muharram. Sans this the Shia Muslims would lose their identity. It is quite clear that the Darul Uloom, Deoband has rejected the Islamic identity of the Shia Muslims together with all those Muslims who have ideological differences with the Wahabi. This also includes the Barelvi School of the Sunni community which is a far bigger section than the Wahabi Muslims.

The Wahabi community comprises only 10 percent of the Sunnis while the people from the Barelvi School comprise approximately 80 percent of the section. Despite this the Barelvi School has neither spoken against believers of shrine and tazia neither have defined jihad as bloodshed. The Deobandi ideologues, on the contrary, have been backing up terrorist organisations of which “The Dawn” has clearly written about in its report of 7th September.

Although Deobands have never spoken in favour of terrorism, rather they have refuted any links to terrorism and have issued statements against it. But not only all the terrorist organisations are deeply influenced by this school but also the people of Pakistan do not deny the fact that the Deobandi influence is the root cause of terrorism. It’s not a new practice for the Deobandis to issue certain statement and work on the contrary. This act is carried out very smartly. This fact will be clearer if we look at the Deoband site in two different languages.

If you look up their website in Urdu language, their motto is defined as promotion of Islam, its knowledge and preparing youths who will promote the Islamic values and the teachings of Islam and Mohammad while the scenario completely changes when you look at the Hindi page. You will find them talking about 1857, patriotism and the role of Darul Uloom in the freedom struggle. Infact you will also find the mention of the piece by the ex-governor of Odisa, Vishwambhar Pande (1983-88) in which he talks about the role of Darul Uloom, Deoband in the freedom struggle. The motive is quite clear. The Muslims should receive the message of extremist Islam and the Hindi page should present a rosy picture so that they receive support from all around and no fingers could be pointed at them.

Darul Uloom does not execute its entire motive on its own. Similar to the RSS which works through various networks, the Deobandis have adopted this tactics long back. Mohammad Iliyaas Al Kandhavi laid the foundation of Tabligi Jamt after completing his education from Deoband in 1926 with the motive of spreading hatred in the name of Islam and promoting it from door to door.

The Tabligi Jamat initiated the movement against the Sufi saints and their shrines in India. In Pakistan, the Tabligi Jamat is seen as the promoters of Sipah-e-Sahba and Al-Qaeda. Their work is to go door to door and tell the illiterate Muslim population concocted stories so as to transform them into extremists. And when the foundation is laid, the terrorist faction takes advantage of the situation and turns them into terrorists.

The ideologies and the activities of the RSS and the Wahabi organisations are so similar. The Sangh establishes its own cultural fronts and also teaches people the art of lathi fights and wrestling. They open educational institutions and decide their syllabus such that they should keep polluting the young minds. On the other hand there are organisations like VHP, Bajrang Dal and Durgavahini which use trident, bombs and arms as their apparatus for bloodshed. In both the ways these organisation complement each other. One wants Hukoomat-e-Illahiya while the other needs “Hindu Rashtra”.

The need of the hour is to understand the role of such educational institutions (Darul Ullom and the madarsas associated with it and the innumerable Saraswati Shishu Mandir and other educational institution associated with the Sangh) in the communal feelings spreading in India, the most recent example of which are the riots of Western UP, and promote kids towards more scientific thinking rather than.

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