Preachers

The Tablighi Jama’at – or preaching party – are a sect of Sunni Islam related to the reformist Deobandi movement and were founded in India in the 1920s to strengthen the faith.  They are said to have a presence in 150 countries around the world, and their annual gatherings at Dhaka in Bangladesh and Raiwind in Pakistan both rival the Hajj in numbers.

The primary aim of the TJ is to encourage good Muslims in devotion and prayer and they shun political involvement. 

Their Indian leaders do not welcome recent exposure caused by the controversy over the massive proposed ‘Megamosque’ in London’s East End – which has now fallen foul of Newham’s planners.  The work of ‘some over-enthusiastic people’ is how the Delhi headquarters described it to this reporter who visited Nizamuddin last year.

The occasional presence of some of Britain’s terrorists at its mosques - Richard Reid the shoebomber and one of the Glasgow airport bombers to name a couple – has done nothing to enhance their reputation. 

They are a highly disciplined group, as evidenced in the requirement to spend up to four months a year on ‘tabligh’ – extended outings where they carry very little, and sleep in mosques - to visit fellow Muslims and exhort them in their religious observances.  They also keep vigil every Thursday night to pray for the souls of unbelievers.

The movement is essentially pietist, ‘above the lure of the duniya’ [worldly attainment] says one scholar, who admits it may also be political by default.  Its sheer scale allows activists to disappear into the woodwork.  ‘Although the TJ remains aloof from party politics, the profound impact that it has in creating an environment of revivalist Islam in civil society at large seems to have also helped the cause of Islamist political groups such as the Jama’at-i-Islami, thereby further contributing to the strengthening of Islamic forces in the country’, says the Indian scholar Yoginder Sikand.

In Bangladesh the government have used it both to counter communism, and provide legitimation, following the shattering upheavals of 1971 when the nation split away from Pakistan.  The only source of comfort and hope to millions of the poorest in a multiply devastated country, it generates a deep-rooted Islamising effect. 

The huge number of remittances from Britain to family members in Sylhet have served to strengthen the TJ, as improved living conditions encourage reformist tendencies among traditionally disadvantaged Muslim groups experiencing upward social mobility, who then renounce their folk religion.

For the Bangladeshi political elite who go out of their way to facilitate the ijtema, the movement is viewed as an effective bulwark against the Islamists and a crucial constituency to be tapped for political gain.