Large Muslim population do not support Tablighi Jamaat

Lt General L Nishikanta Singh (Retd)
Tablighi Jamaat is attracting significant public and media attention currently as a principle hotspot for spread of coronavirus pandemic in India. They are also responsible for spread of the disease in a number of countries. They gifted the misery and deaths of coronavirus pandemic to the Muslim world right from Gaza to Indonesia and Brunei. Similarly, they accelerated the spread of Covid 19, bringing misery and death to the people all over India.
Between February and March 2020, Tablighi Jamaat organised, and also tried to organize, a number of events in South and South East Asia. An international mass religious gathering at a mosque in Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia 27th February to 1st March. This Tablighi Jamaat gathering has been linked to more than thousands of COVID-19 cases, making it the largest-known centre of transmission of the virus in Southeast Asia. In Malaysia itself, by 17 March 2020, this event is responsible for the biggest surge in Covid-19 cases, with almost 430 confirmed cases linked to this event. Most of the Covid-19 cases in Brunei originated here, and other countries including Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines have traced their cases back to this event. Despite the outbreak, Tablighi Jammat planned to organise another international mass congregation on 18th March in Gowa Regency near Makassar in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The organisers initially rebuffed official directives to cancel the gathering, but the Indonesian Government subsequently compelled and forced them to cancel the gathering.
Yet another gathering was organised in Pakistan near Lahore at Raiwind on 11 March. Based on protest from the Pakistani authorities to postpone or cancel, the event was called off at last moment. But, by then, there was a congregation of 250,000 participants . This became a major hotspot for spread of the Covid 19 in Pakistan and other Muslim countries. The participants became carriers of the deadly Covid 19 virus and took them to their respective places.
Two cases in the Gaza strip is attributed to this event. In Pakistan itself, around 40 members of the jamat, were found to be COVID infected. Another 50 people including 4 Nigerian women, suspected to be infected, were quarantined near Lahore. Further in Hyderabad, Sindh, another, 38 members of the jamaat were found to be positive for coronavirus. Raiwind, the place where the event was held has been locked down by Pakistani authorities while the police arrested members of Tablighi Jamaat from their offices in Sindh and Punjab for violating the law. Later during quarantine, one of the members of the jamaat stabbed a policemen while trying to escape from the isolation facility. He was later arrested in Khyber Pakthunwa while the policeman was hospitalized in Layyah town. During this crisis, the Pakistan government has found itself in a helpless situation. Initially, Prime minister Imran Khan, downplayed the crisis, but the country saw rapid rise in cases with limited testing facilities. The problem has further aggravated with doctors not reporting to work, clerics refusing to shut down mosques, parents unwilling to quarantine children in congested homes instead let them play on the streets.
In our country, the Nizamuddin faction of the Tablighi Jamaat held a religious congregational program in Nizamuddin West, Delhi. There was Ijtema (congregation) in every week of March till March 21. There were also other violation of rules by foreign speakers including misuse of tourist visa for missionary activities and not taking 14-day home quarantine for travellers from abroad. Many of the attendees tested positive for the virus. More then a dozen died. It is believed that the sources of infection were preachers from Indonesia. Quite a few attendees provided refuge to foreign speakers without the knowledge of local governments. Many of the attendees returned to different states and eventually affected many people all over India specially in Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Telengana, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Manipur and Assam. The entire Nizamuddin West area has been cordoned off by the Police as of 30 March, and medical camps have been set up. After evacuation from the markaz, of the scores of jamaat attendees, 167 of them were quarantined in a railway facility in south east Delhi amid concerns over their safety and transmission of the virus. There were further complications after the staff at the quarantine facility reported that the Tablighi jamaat followers misbehaved with the staff and spating, which is likely to further spread the disease. FIR was lodged against members of the jamaat quarantined in Ghaziabad after their misbehaviour was reported by the Chief medical officer. The officer reported that the quarantined inmates were roaming naked, playing vulgar songs and making lewd gestures and remarks at the female staff of the hospital. After this the UP government decided that they would not be treated by any female staff and also booked the jammat members under the national security act. Tablighi Jamaat gathering is one of the largest coronavirus hotspots in India. 389 people linked to Tablighi Jamaat tested positive by 2 April 2020. A similar event was prohibited in Mumbai by the Maharashtra Police.
On 31 March 2020, an FIR was filed against Muhammad Saad Kandhlawi and others by Delhi Police Crime Branch under Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and Sections 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease), 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease), 271 (disobedience to quarantine rule) and 120b (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
The problem of Tabligh Jamaat is possibly not only lack of knowledge of science, but also of the religion which it champions. The clerics tell the common Muslims that Coronavirus is a conspiracy against the religious traditions of the Muslims. In their sermons, they say that deserted Mosques will result in the Muslims having no respect or fear of God, hence the Muslim all over world must gather at the nearest Mosque.
The Tablighis visit cities, towns, and villages to engage with the Muslims of the locality. They stay in the mosques. They advocate that the young people to distance themselves from the world, education, career, and be fully absorbed in the practice of religion. Thus the Tablighis, which is a puritanical movement, seeks to drag back the Muslims to the medieval period.
The Tablighi insist that once a person joins them, the person should not take interest in anything else except religion and its ideas. They are, in fact, are preaching to shun academics, politics, business, and so on, as they are irrelevant in the eyes of God. They give examples of the birds, stating that neither do the birds sow nor do they harvest yet God feeds them. Thus they tell the people that there is no need to earn money, plough field or learn or work. Allah would take care of everything, even of the children who are born to them. Mostly, poorer and uneducated sections of the Muslims, who see no hope of making good through mainstream channel, seek achievement and redemption through this route.
The irony is that when the grand mosque Kaba in Mecca is closed, Tablighis are going door to door of Muslims, ‘propagating’ practising a correct form of Islam during a pandemic.
Rightly, a number of Muslims of the World believe that the Tablighis are the worst enemy of the Muslims. They call it ‘Taklifi Jamaat’, as, according to them, it maximises difficulties of its followers and of the Muslims. Similarly, many Muslims in India are critical of them and oppose them.