Saudi Ministry of Islamic affairs terming the Tablighi Jamaat a ‘danger to society’ and ‘one of the gates of terrorism’, has asked preachers to warn people against the group.
In a tweet, the ministry said that the preachers in mosques have been directed to allocate the next Friday sermon to warn people about the Tablighi Jamaat.
“Declaration of the misguidance, deviation and danger of this group, and that it is one of the gates of terrorism, even if they claim otherwise; Mention their most prominent mistakes,” the ministry of Islamic Affairs said.
It added, “Mention their danger to society; Statement that affiliation with partisan groups, including (the Tablighi and Da’wah Group) is prohibited in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Tablighi Jamaat (Society for Spreading Faith), which originated in India in 1926, is a Sunni Islamic missionary movement that urges Muslims to return to a pure form of Sunni Islam and be religiously observant, particularly with respect to dressing, personal behaviour, and rituals. It was deemed as one of the most influential religious movements in the 20th century.
There are somewhere around 350 to 400 million Jamaat members worldwide, who collectively claim that their focus is only on Islam and strictly avoid political activities and debates.
Describing the group as an “Islamic revivalist organization”, United States Institute of Peace noted that Tablighi Jamaat “has appeared on the fringes of several terrorism investigations, leading some to speculate that its apolitical stance simply masks ‘fertile ground for breeding terrorism’ in nations such as UK, France and America.
Meanwhile, Tablighi Jamaat has been severely criticised in India for organizing a mass gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area during the first wave of Covid pandemic for violating lockdown rules in 2020.
The Jamaat operates roughly in 150 countries across the globe, including Western Europe, Africa, and South Asia, according to Pew Research Centre.
The Tablighi Jamaat has a great following in South Asian countries, especially in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Thailand.
