Islam in South Asia

1

Would you give a visa?

Radical Islamic Terrorism

Top Security Threat to the US

Top Security Threat to the US

Top Security Threat to Europe

ISIS ISIL

Refugees

US Military deployment in Afghanistan

2

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

Why are they angry?

What do they want?

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Radical Sunni Terrorists

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This presentation excludes Shia Terrorist groups such as Hezbollah; also excludes Hizbul Tahrir

2a

TWO FOCI:
South Asia
Middle East

South Asia
Source and Victim of Radical Islamic Terror

Spreading

Spreading

Spreading

2b

Major religions

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SOUTH ASIA IN ISLAMIC WORLD

• 500 million; 28% of all Muslims; Arabs 384 million
• 150 million (10% of all Muslims) speak Bangla
• Afghanistan, Pakistan
• Most victims of Islamic terror outside M-E
• Home of both Political Islam and Neo-fundamentalism

3

GLORY OF ISLAM

"in September 622 the Prophet Mohammed had fled from hostile Mecca to friendly Medina, thereby initiating the Muslim era; and just eleven years afterwards, in 633, the armies of Islam would begin the advance that was to take them, in the course of a single century, to within 150 miles of Paris and to the very gates of Constantinople"

. In 633, they burst out of Arabia. After three years they had taken Damascus; after five, Jerusalem; after six, all Syria; within a decade, Egypt and Armenia; within twenty years, the Persian Empire; within thirty, Afghanistan and most of the Punjab. Then, after a brief interval for consolidation, they turned their attention to the West. In 711, having occupied the entire coast of North Africa, they invaded Spain; and by 732, less than a century after their first eruption from their desert homeland, they had crossed the Pyrenees and driven north to the banks of the Loire – where they were finally checked.”

POLITICAL POWER OF ISLAM

• Ruled Spain for 700 years
• Ruled India for 700  years 
• Ruled East Europe for 500 years
• Dominant imperial force for 1000 years

ISIS MAP

The land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it. No Arab country nor the aggregate of all Arab countries, and no Arab King or President nor all of them in the aggregate, have that right, nor has that right any organization or the aggregate of all organizations, be they Palestinian or Arab, because Palestine is an Islamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day of Resurrection. ....This is the status [of the land] in Islamic Shari’a, and it is similar to all lands conquered by Islam by force, and made thereby Waqf lands upon their conquest, for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection.

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Ummah

• Supranational community
• Borderless
• Once Islamic, always Islamic

Radicals believe that the defeat of these great Islamic empires by the West was the result of Muslims deviating from the “true faith”.

Become “good” Muslims, root out whatever has corrupted the “true faith” and propagate this “true faith”.

“True Faith”
Literal observance of the precepts of the Koran and the Hadith;
Lifestyle similar to what the Prophet and his companions (the Salaf)

4a

Islam is the final revealed religion and must conquer all. The existence of any other religion is a sacrilege.

The Koran is a complete guide that has all answers to all questions that the human mind could possibly conceive of. The Koran and Islamic scriptures are complete ethical, spiritual, political, legal, social, economic and cultural guide for all mankind that should govern all aspects of life universally. Qutb and Maududi derived their entire ideologies from the Koran. The core of Neo-fundamentalism is a belief that Muslims must literally adhere to the Koran in everything that they do. There can be no law other than the Sha’ria; a person cannot believe in anything (e.g. democracy, secularism, socialism) that is not explicitly mentioned in the Koran – let alone practice it; and, the only purpose that life can have is obedience to the Koran.

"It is characterized by a profound understanding, by precise notions and by a complete comprehensiveness of all concepts of Islam in all domains of life: views and beliefs, politics and economics, education and society, jurisprudence and rule, indoctrination and teaching, the arts and publications, the hidden and the evident, and all the other domains of life." Art 2 Hamas Charter

4b

RADICAL

• Heretics must be converted
• If peaceful Da'wa works, good
• If not, violent jihad is sanctioned
• Violence is efficent (Bolsheviks, Nazis)

Obsessed with Heresy

• Disagreement  is heretical  
• Ahmadiyas, Bahais apostates
• Shias
• Non-conforming Sunnis
• Godless West, Israel, India 

4c

Sharia

• Divine or Revealed Law
• Superior to other Laws
• Strict implementation

The Muslim women have a no lesser role than that of men in the war of liberation; they manufacture men and play a great role in guiding and educating the [new] generation. The enemies have understood that role, therefore they realize that if they can guide and educate [the Muslim women] in a way that would distance them from Islam, they would have won that war. Therefore, you can see them making consistent efforts [in that direction] by way of publicity and movies, curricula of education and culture, using as their intermediaries their craftsmen who are part of the various Zionist Organizations which take on all sorts of names and shapes such as: the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, gangs of spies and the like. All of them are nests of saboteurs and sabotage.

"The women in the house and the family of Jihad fighters, whether they are mothers or sisters, carry out the most important duty of caring for the home and raising the children upon the moral concepts and values which derive from Islam; and of educating their sons to observe the religious injunctions in preparation for the duty of Jihad awaiting them. Therefore, we must pay attention to the schools and curricula upon which Muslim girls are educated, so as to make them righteous mothers, who are conscious of their duties in the war of liberation. They must be fully capable of being aware and of grasping the ways to manage their households. Economy and avoiding waste in household expenditures are prerequisites to our ability to pursue our cause in the difficult circumstances surrounding us. Therefore let them remember at all times that money saved is equivalent to blood, which must be made to run in the veins in order to ensure the continuity of life of our young and old." Hamas Charter Art 18

4c(i)

Non-Muslims in Islamic State

• Life and property to be protected
• Excluded from Governance
• Underclass
• Pay "Jizya" tax

Hamas is a humane movement, which cares for human rights and is committed to the tolerance inherent in Islam as regards attitudes towards other religions. It is only hostile to those who are hostile towards it, or stand in its way in order to disturb its moves or to frustrate its efforts. Under the shadow of Islam it is possible for the members of the three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism to coexist in safety and security. Safety and security can only prevail under the shadow of Islam, and recent and ancient history is the best witness to that effect. The members of other religions must desist from struggling against Islam over sovereignty in this region.

4d

Violently Anti-West

• Nothing positive in West
• Nothing to discuss with Christians and Jews
• Godless, tryannical 

4e

Leader - Caliph, Ameer

• Suitable - "True Muslim"
• Revealation
• Obeys precepts of Koran
• Lives according to Sharia
• Pope+Holy Roman Emperror

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RADICAL TAXONOMY

POLITICAL ISLAM 1

• Egypt
• Muslim Brotherhood Ikhwan ul Muselmeen
• Syed Qutb
• Studied in the United States

POLITICAL ISLAM 2

• South Asia
• Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India
• Maulana Abdul Ala Maududi

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• Political eclipse of Islam
• Humiliated by the West
• South Asia  Dar ul Harb
• Build Dar ul Islam

Marxian evolution

The role of the Jamaat-e-Islami, founded by Maududi, is to be the vanguard of this Islamic revolution.

Islamist Utopia

• Theo-democracy
• Tawheed - Sovereignty of Allah
• Risalat - Prophet as Guide
• Khilafat - Vice regency by Caliph

"Its ultimate goal is Islam, the Prophet its model, the Qur’an its Constitution." Art5, Hamas Charter

*Islam is superior to democracy. Western democracy is based on the concept of popular sovereignty and people making their own laws. Islamic democracy vests sovereignty in Allah with mankind as his viceregent and laws (Sha’ria) that derive from Allah. Therefore Islamic democracy is superior.
*“Western democracy is a kind of absolute authority which exercises its powers in a free and uncontrolled manner, whereas Islamic democracy is subservient to the Divine Law and exercises its authority in accordance with the injunctions of Allah and within the limits prescribed by Him.”
* Khomeini used this argument to declare that no Islamic regime could be dictatorial because the ruler governed according to divine law and not his individual will.

Islamic revolution would be heralded not by the masses but by the society’s leaders. Revolution, in Maududi’s view, did not erupt from the bottom up but flowed from the top of society down. The aim of Islamic revolution, therefore, was not to spearhead the struggle of the underclass but to convert society’s leaders.

Once the leadership had been won over to Islam—the Jamaat taking power—the society would be Islamized and all socioeconomic maladies would be automatically cured.

Conflicts with democracy

• Secularism is heresy.
• All are not equal
• Koranic duties - Fitnah, Ba'yah
• Sharia is Divine Law and immutable
• Leader is "revealed"

5a

Ba'yah

Al Ash Shaikh and Ibn Saud

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Neofundamentalists

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Identical beliefs

*Return to the pristine Islam followed by the Prophet and his immediate followers (salaf as salih, hence the appellation “salafis”) as laid down in authentic Hadith .
*Neofundamentalists do not accept scientific theology or any attempt to reinterpret Islam according to changing times.
*Imitate the Prophet in all matters and believe that the path to salvation lies in literally following the Hadith.

Excessive emphasis on ritual and modes of behaviour.
Three fingers should always be used when eating, water is to be drunk in three pauses with the right hand while sitting.
Punctual and ritually correct prayer is compulsory, modest dress is required, all intoxicants are forbidden, music and dancing have been forbidden as have loud laughter and demonstrative weeping, particularly at funerals.
A surprising amount of time is spent by neo-fundamentalist clerics on discussing mundane matters (hence a continuing debate on how to brush one’s teeth.)

Salafi

• Beard
• Show ankle
• Rituals - drink water like the salaf

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Neofundamentalists believe that they represent the only path to salvation. They consider themselves to be the only “true Muslims”. Whether other Muslims should be declared infidels or not is an obsession as is the method to be used to return deviant Muslims to the true path. Mainstream neofundamentalists advocate da’wa, while radicals believe that they have an obligation to wage Jihad against non-believers or apostates.

8 reasons for Jihad: (1) to eliminate evil and facilitate conversion to and practice of Islam; (2) to ensure the ascendancy of Islam; (3) to force non-Muslims to pay jizya (a tax on non-believers); (4) to assist the weak and powerless; (5) to avenge the blood of Muslims killed by non-believers; (6) to punish enemies for breaking promises and treaties (7) to defend a Muslim state; and (8) to liberate Muslim territories under non-Muslim occupation

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Indo Islamic tradition

Music

Architecture

Dance

Exquisite Art

Sculpture

Learning

Faith

Devotion

B'IDA (Innovation)
SHIRK (Idolatry)

Mughal Tomb

Saudi Royal

7a

Very strong in Af-Pak

200 years of Jihad

• 1826-1860s Afghanistan
• 1857 Rebellion
• 1870 Kill Viceroy, Chief Justice
• Tough British response
• Lashkar e Toiba, suicide bombers

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Deoband

• 2nd largest teaching centre
• Established 1866
• 4000 students, 300 teachers
• Dar ul Uloom

Before Deoband

• Has Bible, but no Church or Pope
• No organised priesthood
• No uniform religious experience
• Same question, different answers
• Diminished political clout

After Deoband

• 100,000 alumni, international elite
• Uniformity of thought, objective, strong bonds
• Divine duty to spread Islam - Deoband style
•  Madrassas, imams, intellectuals
• Enormous influence

Curriculum

• Dars-e-Nizami
• Character of students - Erudite, principled, pious
• No western clothes, skull cap, beard
• Prophetic model - beard, eat, sleep, laugh
• Spend time in prayer and remembrance

"Modern" methods

• Professional teachers
• Classrooms, library
• Exams, fixed curriculum 
• Entrance test 
• All expenses paid 

Fatwas

Some Fatwas

• Women cannot contest elections
• No TV
• Women should wear hijab in public

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• Donations from community
• NO State funding
• Impeccable records
• Annual Report
• Zakat

Strong influence in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Musharraf, Zia ul Haq deeply influenced

Political offshoot

Terrorists

• Lashkar e Jhangvi
• Jaish e Muhammad
• Harkat ul Jihad ul Islami
• Harkat ul Mujahadeen
• Sipah al Sahaba

8a

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Taleban

• Pakistan supported madrassah students
• Ultra strict interpretation of Shariah
• Extreme attitudes towards women and dissent
• Madrassahs empty during fighting season
• Students encouraged to fight during vacations

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Tabligh

Khuruj - Proselytising tour

• Groups of 10, self-financing, voluntary
• 3 day, 40 day, 4 month, 1 year
• Domestic (short), international (long)
• "Are you good muslim?"
• "Come to maghrib prayer at mosque"

Itjema

• Annual gathering
• Dhaka, Raiwind, Bhopal
• A million attend
• Low-profile

Every Muslim must (1) recite Shahadah (the profession of faith) correctly in Arabic (2) pray (Shalat )correctly (3) learn the basic teachings of Islam and do zikr (4) respect fellow Muslims (5) be honest and sincere while doing these (6) go forth and to spread the word of God (7) not waste time or sin

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• Secretive, NO publication
• No political opinions
• Based in Delhi
• Opaque funding

Global presence

• Pakistan, Bangladesh
• South Asian expat Muslim communities
• UK, USA (US prisons)
• Africa, Central Asia, "marginal" Muslims
• Mega mosque Newham London

Terror links

• Non-political but never denounced violence
• First stop for many western jihadis
• Recruit during itjemas

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Heretics

Sunni Shia distribution

Shia Sects

Ismaili

Bohra

Alawites

Druze

Druze servie in IDF

Sufis

Bahais

Ahmadiyyas

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Relationship between radicals

Differences between

• Neofundamentalists and Islamists
• Neofundamentalist schools 

Neofundamentalists view on Islamists

• "Maududism" is not Islam
• Islamists, Shias, etc are Zionist agents
• Da'wa, NOT politics

Islamist views on Neofundamentalists

• Poorly educated
• Too traditional 
• Contempt for ulema
• Politics and Da'wa

Students at Deoband are taught that Jamaatis, the Barelvis, the Shiites and the Ahle Hadithis are actually Zionist creations and agents of the Devil that are trying to destroy Islam from within. The Ahle Hadith are referred to as sources of “great strife” and as being virtually outside the Muslim pale. The Shias are described as kaffr and those who doubt this are called kaffr themselves. The Barelvis are treated almost as idolaters.

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Pious vs Radical

Bangladesh vs Pakistan

Majority of Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh are moderate

Barelvis in Pakistan

• Majority
• Venerate dead, visit shrines
• Sufi
• Devotional music 

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Bangladesh

• Sufi stronghold
• Wahabi influence recent
• Women mostly unveiled
• Co-existence with Hindus

Hindus and Muslims were virtually indistinguishable
except for the absence of inter-marriage and on eating together. Average Bengali Muslims observed “none of the ceremonies of its faith, worship at the shrines of a rival religion and tenaciously adhere to practices which were denounced as the foulest abominations by its founder.”

They venerated holy men (pirs) and shrines ; used charms, incantations and amulets to ward of misfortune; celebrated festivals that appeared suspiciously like those of their Hindu compatriots; observed un-Islamic customs ; depended on local mullahs to exorcise evil spirits.
Rural mullahs were ignorant of Arabic and Islamic jurisprudence and theology and indeed derived much of their livelihood from “un-Islamic” practices. Not one in ten Bengalee Muslims could recite the simple kalimah, or creed, considered indispensable for every Muslim . Inhabitants of several villages who had assembled to celebrate the festival Bakr Id in 1874 could not find anyone in the entire locality who could lead their prayers. “Reformers” thought them to be ignorant of the “true” faith, idolatrous and worse.

Bangladesh

• Sale of burqas increasing
• More people fasting during Ramadan
• Greater observance of religious practice
• Greater use of Arabic/Koran

Bangladesh

• Vote share of Radical Islamist parties declining
• Awami League and liberals very strong
• Neofundamentalist terrorist leaders executed
• Islamist leader sentenced to death
• Education sytems teaches respect for all religions

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5 pillars of Islam

•  Shahadah: There is no God but Allah….
•  Salat: 5 daily prayers
• Zakat
• Sawm: Fasting  during Ramadan
• Hajj

Madrassas

• Religious education system, attached to mosque, teacher-Imams
• KG to Grad
• Uneasy coexistence with "modern" education, Aliya and Quomi 
• Curriculum has no science - Arabic, Classics, Grammar, Koran, Philosophy
• Students are a force in favour of Islamisation

Zakat

Zakat or obligatory alms-giving is a must. It is the third of the five pillars of Islam. It is given annually and is usually 2% of an individual’s wealth. Muslims may also give voluntarily and spontaneously {sadaqa or “gift”} as an act of piety. It is considered to be pious, private and often secret action that will support the congregation of Islam. Wealthy Muslims often prefer to make private donations as sadaqa to charities or causes of their choice. It is obligatory in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Sudan.

Zakat and Sadaqa funding are major source of terrorist income. Most zakat comes from Saudi Arabia

The life of the Prophet is known as the Sira and was lived in the full light of history. Everything he did and said, his important decisions, his instructions and his activities were recorded at his insistence by a group of 45 scribes. The minutest details of the Prophet’s life are thus available. How he spoke, sat, slept, dressed, walked; his behaviour as a husband, father, nephew; his attitudes towards women, children, animals; his business transactions and stance towards the poor and the oppressed; his engagements in camps and cantonments; his behaviour in battle; his experience of political authority and stand on power; his personal habits, likes and dislikes; even his private dealings with his wives have all been recorded. The daily utterances and discourses of the Prophet, from the day he received the first revelation till his death, are known as the Hadith. Hadith literally means “statement”.

Together the Sira and the Hadith constitute the Sunnah. The word Sunnah means method, example, or path. The Sunnah tells Muslims what their ideal behaviour should be like. It teaches Muslims ritual and the spiritual aspects of their faith – how to pray, fast ad perform pilgrimage to Makkah. The Sunnah is also, however, a guide in moral and social matters. Thus a Muslim seeking a pious life simply follows the norms and patterns established by the life and traditions of the Prophet – as laid down in the Sunnah.

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Threat Percpetion

• 2004 - The 2020 Project
• 2012 Global Trends 2030

The key factors that spawned international terrorism show no signs of abating over the next 15 years. Facilitated by global communications, the revival of Muslim identity will create a framework for the spread of radical Islamic ideology inside and outside the Middle East, …... We expect that by 2020 al-Qa’ida will be superceded by similarly inspired Islamic extremist groups, and there is a substantial risk that broad Islamic movements akin toal-Qa’ida will merge with local separatist movements.

Several circumstances are ending the current
Islamist phase of terrorism, which suggest that as
with other terrorist waves—the Anarchists in the
1880s and 90s , the postwar anti-colonial terrorist
movements, the New Left in 1970s—the recent
religious wave is receding and could end by 2030.
Terrorism is unlikely to die completely, however,
because it has no single cause. The traditional use
of the term “root cause” for understanding what
drives terrorism is misleading. Rather, some experts
point to the analogy of a forest fire: a mixture of
conditions—such as dry heat, a spark, and wind—

that lead to terrorism.

A Receding Enemy. Although al-Qa‘ida and
others have focused on the United States a
clear enemy, the appeal of the United States as
the “great enemy” is declining. The impending
withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and decreases
in US forces in Afghanistan help to reduce
the extent to which terrorists can draw on
the United States as a lightning rod for anger.
Soon, US support for Israel could be the last
remaining major focus of Muslim anger.

Al-Qa‘ida core has been in decline for several
years, as the kings of Muslims diminished the
organization’s broad appeal, the war in Afghanistan
cost al-Qa‘ida its initial base and forced it to move
into the more difficult environment in the trial areas
of Pakistan, and US attacks killed many senior
leaders and key operatives. In the short term, the
al-Qa‘ida core might still be able to launch attacks;
experts noted that organizations such as the
Baader-Meinhof group in the 1970s still did damage
even when facing similar problems as al-Qa‘ida is
today. Some al-Qa‘ida affiliates and other types
of Islamist terrorist organizations are likely to pose
more serious threats, however.

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