Wahabis vs Tabligi Jamaat: How the battle has entered India

The trouble with Wahabi preachers from Saudi Arabia is back to haunt the Intelligence Bureau officials yet again. With a change in the modus operandi, the Wahabis who came into the country in large numbers earlier are now adapting another pattern.

It has been found that smaller groups of Wahabi preachers are making their way into the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The Wahabis have a very rigid style of functioning and the manner in which they expect one to follow the religion is beyond understanding.

A four corner fight

The trouble with this entire issue is that there is fighting within the sects of the religion. The Tabligi Jamaat and the Wahabis do not see eye to eye. This is in fact one of the major reasons why the Saudis banned the Tabligi Jamaat to give preference to the Wahabis.

While there are indications that members of the Tabligi Jamaat have been preaching to a large group of people, the Wahabis have sought to counter them and have unleashed their members. What the Tabligi is trying to do, the Wahabis are undoing and this has led to a fight between the two.

Further more, the Sufis in India have raised concerns. They face a severe opposition from both the Wahabis and the Tabligi Jamaat and both believe that Sufism is not a form of Islam at all and hence needs to be stopped.

The fourth sect in this entire battle are the Sunni Muslims in India. They want neither of the sects dictating terms to them and had even petitioned the Home Minister to control the influx of the Wahabis into India.

Between rigid and radical

When OneIndia spoke to several Muslim scholars, they said that the problem is that the Tabligi and the Wahabis do not see eye to eye. While the Tabligi Jamaat is rigid no doubt, they go strictly by the Quran.

However in the case of the Wahabis, the law is entirely different. They have interpreted the Quran and imposed very violent laws. The Wahabis believe in the Sharia law which in today's world is impossible to implement.

While the Tabligi Jamaat feels that anyone should be allowed into a Mosque, the Wahabis think otherwise.

Both do not agree on various counts and many Muslims believe that Wahabism is not the correct form of Islam at all. The Wahabis in fact believe in the style of the ISIS which is extremely rigid. It is the Wahabi preachers who insist that the ISIS is right and also feel that in the world there are Muslims and the rest are all infidels.

The Mosque take over

The battle in India is however being largely staged by the Wahabi preachers. In Gujarat and Maharashtra there has been a steady rise in the number of Wahabi preachers. The Wahabis have however been careful and do not interfere with the rest of the religions.

The only intention is to spread a different style of thinking. Most of the fights that the Wahabis have had are with the local Sunni Muslims and the battle has reached up to the Mosques.

Several Sunni Muslims in India have complained that the Wahabis come in from Saudi, Indonesia and the UAE with a lot of money and are able to buy over members in the Mosque administration.

An incident in Mumbai two years back was a clear indicator of how the Wahabis managed to take over a Mosque after buying members of the administrative panel. Similar instances are now seen in Gujarat especially in the Pavagadh area.

Intelligence on high alert

In April 2015, the Home Ministry had issued a directive to all the states to ensure that the influx of Wahabi preachers into the country is ended. The home ministry also said that many such preachers were coming into India under the guise of tourists.

While ordering the deportation of such preachers, the Home Ministry also directed the states to report such persons immediately. The Home Ministry had stated that preachers under the guise of tourists were coming in from Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, UAE, Qatar, Myanmar, France, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Bangladesh.

Several Muslim organizations had petitioned the Home Ministry about the Wahabi preachers coming into India. They had stated in their petition that if the government does not do enough to stop them then that day is not far when they will create an Iraq/Syria sought of situation in India.

The Intelligence Bureau is taking matters very seriously especially in the wake of the ISIS and the Al-Qaeda both announcing that they had interests in India.