[Reader-list] Islamism, modernity & Indian Mujahideen - PRAVEEN SWAMI

anupam chakravartty c.anupam at gmail.com
Wed Mar 24 19:19:30 IST 2010 

Pawan asked me in a personal mail that what was the point i am trying
to make by citing the religious texts from other religions on this
issue.

I think intelligence agencies find it difficult to digest the fact a
propaganda piece denigrating idol worship represents an radically
conservative islamist point of view but there have been several
parallel strands who were critical about idol worship in a way in
indian history.

anupam

On 3/24/10, anupam chakravartty <c.anupam at gmail.com> wrote:
> As cited by Pawan as an excerpt of the Hindu article by Praveen Swami.
> Some similar strands could be also seen in variations of other
> religions as well. I do not doubt Swami's research. I would appreciate
> if you take this as my contribution to this discussion which was being
> highlighted by Pawan as an example about what Swami describes as a
> propaganda of the so-called Indian Mujaheddin.
>
> "So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed
> in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it." -- Ezekiel
> 36:18
>
> "the bhakta is not to case either adoring or hateful glances on the
> idols of other gods; nor should be visit places of their worship
> (Sankaradeva, Bhag, p-2)  -- Bhakti Saint, Shankardeva
> however, the Guru himself also says "No hostility however, is to be
> exhibited by him towards the adherents of other creeds while engaging
> himself in the worship of Visnu, who alone is considered as being
> Suddha-sattava, of pureexixtence (narayanakalah santa bhajani by
> anasuyavah, Bhag, p. 1.2.26)"
>
> -regards
> Anupam
>
> On 3/24/10, anupam chakravartty <c.anupam at gmail.com> wrote:
>> aditya,
>>
>> im enlightened. i suffer from this enlightenment every morning. so
>> much enlightenment everywhere. it is like an overdose.
>>
>> thanks for reacting anyway
>> anupam
>>
>> On 3/24/10, Aditya Raj Kaul <kauladityaraj at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Is posting an investigative piece on the list which exposes extremists,
>>> a
>>> crime ?
>>>
>>> Its not about advertising. Its about reality, perspective and games
>>> being
>>> played in dark. Games which kill people in the name of religion.
>>>
>>> Be enlightened.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 6:27 PM, anupam chakravartty
>>> <c.anupam at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>> Pawan,
>>>>
>>>> I must praise you for being a chalta pheerta advertisement for
>>>> extremism. you have successfully advertised all forms of extremism on
>>>> this list. good going.
>>>>
>>>> anupam
>>>>
>>>> On 3/24/10, Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> > "“Haven't you still realised that the falsehood of your 33 crore
>>>> > dirty
>>>> > mud idols and the blasphemy of your deaf, dumb, mute and naked idols
>>>> > of Ram, Krishna and Hanuman”, the venomous Indian Mujahideen
>>>> > manifesto
>>>> > released to media as bombs went off across Ahmedabad read, “are not
>>>> > at
>>>> > all going to save your necks, Insha-Allah, from being slaughtered by
>>>> > our hands.”
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > Islamism, modernity & Indian Mujahideen - PRAVEEN SWAMI
>>>> >
>>>> > http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article267670.ece?homepage=true
>>>> >
>>>> > Many believe the jihadist movement in India to be driven by religious
>>>> > fanaticism. There is little doubt that the idiom of the Indian
>>>> > Mujahideen drew on Islam, or at least a certain reading of Islam. The
>>>> > manifestos the organisation released after its operations sought
>>>> > religious legitimacy for the jihadist project.
>>>> >
>>>> > Days before 21 improvised explosive devices ripped through Ahmedabad
>>>> > on July 26, 2008, a young cleric from Azamgarh arrived to offer
>>>> > religious instruction to the Indian Mujahideen's bombers.
>>>> >
>>>> > Sheikh Abul Bashar hoped, Gujarat Police investigators say, to deepen
>>>> > the bombers' theological understanding of the war they were engaged
>>>> > in. He came armed with Salamat-e-Kayamat, an evangelical video
>>>> > replete
>>>> > with scriptural prophecies of the triumph of Islam before the day of
>>>> > judgment. He also acquired a copy of Faruk Camp, a paean to Taliban
>>>> > rule in Afghanistan, from Usman Aggarbattiwala, a young commerce
>>>> > graduate from Vadodara's Maharaja Sayaji University who allegedly
>>>> > programmed the integrated circuits used as timers for a separate set
>>>> > of bombs planted in Surat.
>>>> >
>>>> > Bored by the religious polemic, though, Bashar's students turned
>>>> > instead to Anurag Kashyap's movie Black Friday — a riveting account
>>>> > of
>>>> > just how a group of hard-drinking, womanising gangsters carried out
>>>> > the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai to avenge the anti-Muslim riots
>>>> > that that tore apart the city after the demolition of the Babri
>>>> > Masjid.
>>>> >
>>>> > It seems improbable that the earnest cleric approved of these
>>>> > decidedly irreligious role-models — and the Indian Mujahideen's
>>>> > aesthetic choices — may point us in the direction of important
>>>> > insights into the jihadist movement in India.
>>>> >
>>>> > Many believe the jihadist movement in India to be driven by religious
>>>> > fanaticism. There is little doubt that the idiom of the Indian
>>>> > Mujahideen drew on Islam, or at least a certain reading of Islam. The
>>>> > manifestos the organisation released after its operations sought
>>>> > religious legitimacy for the jihadist project. They also point to
>>>> > specific secular political problems facing India's Muslims,
>>>> > specifically communal violence. Bashar's Black Friday story helps
>>>> > debunk notions that the jihadist movement in India is spearheaded by
>>>> > madrasa-educated fanatics indoctrinated in something called “extreme
>>>> > Islam.” Both SIMI, and the Jamaat-e-Islami from which it was born,
>>>> > would rail against watching films; Indian Mujahideen terrorists
>>>> > revelled in them. Many seminaries are still struggling with
>>>> > modernity;
>>>> > India's jihadists are natives of the new world.
>>>> >
>>>> > Azamgarh and the Indian Mujahideen: Early last month, police in Uttar
>>>> > Pradesh arrested Salman Ahmad, one of a string of alleged jihadists
>>>> > associated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba's so-called “Karachi Project”: an
>>>> > enterprise run by Karachi-based fugitive Indian jihadists Riyaz
>>>> > Ismail
>>>> > Shahbandri, his brother Iqbal Shahbandri, and Abdul Subhan Qureshi to
>>>> > execute a renewed wave of bombings across the country. Police say
>>>> > Ahmad, who was arrested after the Research and Analysis Wing
>>>> > intercepted phone calls he made from Nepal to Pakistan, had received
>>>> > training at a Lashkar camp in Karachi before being tasked to set up a
>>>> > safe-house in Kathmandu for routing new recruits to the Lashkar. Just
>>>> > 15, his lawyers claim, when he was alleged to have participated in
>>>> > the
>>>> > 2008 bombings in New Delhi, Ahmad studied at a government-run high
>>>> > school and had enrolled for a computer-applications course at a
>>>> > Lucknow college.
>>>> >
>>>> > Ahmad's profile closely resembles that of many Azamgarh jihadists —
>>>> > which, along with Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bhatkal, near Mangalore,
>>>> > served as a core recruitment base for the Lashkar-e-Taiba — linked
>>>> > jihadist cells which are today collectively referred to as the Indian
>>>> > Mujahideen.
>>>> >
>>>> > Data obtained by The Hindu for 10 individuals alleged to be key
>>>> > members of the Azamgarh jihadist cell show that just two individuals
>>>> > —
>>>> > Bashar himself and Mohammad Arif Badruddin — had spent any length of
>>>> > time in madrasas. Many likely received some religious education in
>>>> > their spare time, in common with many small-town children of all
>>>> > faiths, but their aspirations appear to have been decidedly
>>>> > middle-class. Zeeshan Ahmad, one of the suspects involved in the 2008
>>>> > shootout with the Delhi Police at Batla House, was pursuing a
>>>> > business
>>>> > administration degree. His flat-mate, Mohammad Saif, a history
>>>> > graduate, also hoped to secure an MBA. Mohammad Zakir Sheikh was
>>>> > studying for a Master's degree in Psychology in Azamgarh. Sadiq Israr
>>>> > Sheikh, who spent two years in an Azamgarh madrasa as a child, was
>>>> > enrolled in a computer-educaiton course.
>>>> >
>>>> > Bashar's story casts some light on just how the jihadist cells in
>>>> > Azamgarh in fact formed. In the wake of the demolition of the Babri
>>>> > Masjid, the Jamaat-e-Islami came under intense pressure from
>>>> > hardliners calling for militant action. The party, deeply entwined in
>>>> > mainstream politics and suspicious of a confrontation with the Indian
>>>> > state, resisted. Maulana Abdul Aleem Islahi — a prominent
>>>> > Hyderabad-based cleric who had graduated from Azamgarh's well-known
>>>> > Madrasat-ul-Islah — earned the party's wrath by authoring an
>>>> > inflammatory tract challenging its line. Expelled from the
>>>> > Jamaat-e-Islami, Maulana Islahi became an ideological mentor to many
>>>> > young radicals who played a key role in the jihadist movement in
>>>> > India
>>>> > — among them, fugitive Indian Mujahideen commander Abdul Subhan
>>>> > Qureshi.
>>>> >
>>>> > In the summer of 2005, Maulana Islahi offered Bashar a job at the
>>>> > Jamaiat Sheikh ul-Maududi, a seminary named for the founder of the
>>>> > Jamaat-e-Islami. The cleric and Bashar's father had been friends and
>>>> > political allies in the Jamaat; their relationship evidently survived
>>>> > his expulsion.
>>>> >
>>>> > Later, though, Bashar was increasingly drawn to the jihadist project
>>>> > advocated by Maulana Islahi's son, Salim. He left his job, began
>>>> > addressing gatherings of the pro-jihadist organisations like the
>>>> > Darsgah Jihad-o-Shahadat and Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Sha'aire Islam, and
>>>> > edited the Islamist magazine Nishaan-e-Rah, which drew its name from
>>>> > the seminal ideologue Syed Qutb's key work, Milestones. Salim Islahi
>>>> > introduced Bashar to Sadiq Israr Sheikh, a Mumbai-based SIMI radical
>>>> > with Azamgarh roots who had studied at a madrasa there for some years
>>>> > as a child. Sheikh, who was linked through SIMI to the Indian
>>>> > Mujahideen's fugitive commanders Qureshi and Shahbandri, in turn
>>>> > recruited jihadists in Azamgarh — key among them Atif Amin, who was
>>>> > killed in the 2008 shootout.
>>>> >
>>>> > The “Islamist Class”: Clearly, a complex matrix of factors — among
>>>> > them, personal friendship, kinship networks and ideology — helped
>>>> > build the Indian Mujahideen's networks. Madrasas or traditional
>>>> > Islamist affiliations were not among them. Bashar, for example, did
>>>> > not draw on students of the Madrasa Sheikh ul-Maududi for recruits.
>>>> > Nor did he seek out students at the Azamgarh seminary where he and
>>>> > his
>>>> > employer were educated, the Madrasat-ul-Islah.
>>>> >
>>>> > Part of the reason for this may be that the jihadist movement, of
>>>> > which SIMI was the most visible face, stood in opposition to both the
>>>> > traditional clerics and organised Islamist politics. In his rich
>>>> > anthropological study Islamism and Democracy in India, the scholar
>>>> > Irfan Ahmad explored the frictions between the Jamaat-e-Islami
>>>> > establishment and SIMI at the Jamaat-e-Islami-run Jamiat-ul-Falah
>>>> > seminary in Azamgarh. Founded by the Jamaat-e-Islami to capitalise on
>>>> > the new political space that opened up after the Emergency, SIMI soon
>>>> > embarrassed the party's elders by its support for jihadists.
>>>> >
>>>> > SIMI mounted polemical attacks on the Jamaat-e-Islami scholar Maulana
>>>> > Mohammad Rahmani, and sought to take control of the Jamiat-ul-Falah's
>>>> > old-students' association. In 1999, a time when it had become
>>>> > increasingly vocal in its calls for jihad and support for
>>>> > organisations like the Taliban, SIMI members provoked a showdown with
>>>> > authorities at the Jamiat-ul-Falah. The Jamaat-e-Islami's official
>>>> > students' wing, the Students Islamic Organisation, responded by
>>>> > founding a parallel student body, the Tanzeem Tulba-e-Qadim, which
>>>> > charged SIMI with propagating “katta [gun] culture”, saying that its
>>>> > calls for jihad were “lethal for Islam, Muslims and the country.”
>>>> > Notably, SIMI was proscribed by authorities at the Jamiat-ul-Falah
>>>> > well before the Government of India finally acted against the
>>>> > jihadist
>>>> > organisation in the wake of the Al Qaeda's attacks on the United
>>>> > States on September 11, 2001. During the police crackdown that
>>>> > followed the SIO refused to join in protests against SIMI leaders
>>>> > from
>>>> > the Jamiat-ul-Falah.
>>>> >
>>>> > Dr. Ahmad points to the existence of what he describes as a distinct
>>>> > “Islamist class”. Unlike at some other seminaries, students living at
>>>> > Falah did not come from among the ranks of the poor. Fees, including
>>>> > food and incidental costs, ranged around Rs. 900 a month. Of 5,365
>>>> > students, 4,300 came from cities. But class, he noted was “not just
>>>> > based on monthly income and an urban location but, more crucial, the
>>>> > specific cultural capital.” Just as cultural capital of the
>>>> > Jamaat-e-Islami led its leadership to make specific political choices
>>>> > to the crisis with which the Muslim community has been confronted,
>>>> > so,
>>>> > too, did the jihadists linked to the institutions and organisations
>>>> > that broke with the structured Islamist movement. Both sides drew on
>>>> > Islam to legitimise their position — but their choices were shaped by
>>>> > the challenges of politics in a modern, plural society.
>>>> >
>>>> > “Haven't you still realised that the falsehood of your 33 crore dirty
>>>> > mud idols and the blasphemy of your deaf, dumb, mute and naked idols
>>>> > of Ram, Krishna and Hanuman”, the venomous Indian Mujahideen
>>>> > manifesto
>>>> > released to media as bombs went off across Ahmedabad read, “are not
>>>> > at
>>>> > all going to save your necks, Insha-Allah, from being slaughtered by
>>>> > our hands.”
>>>> >
>>>> > Below, though, were five demands, each entirely secular in character:
>>>> > demands for restitution against police outrages, the punishment of
>>>> > the
>>>> > perpetrators of communal violence, and the legal defence of terrorism
>>>> > suspects.
>>>> >
>>>> > Fighting the jihadists must obviously involve better policing and
>>>> > intelligence. But it also needs political interventions built around
>>>> > rights and justice — not the appeasement of religious
>>>> > neoconservatives
>>>> > and clerics, as successive Indian governments have seemed to believe.
>>>> > _________________________________________
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>>>> _________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Aditya Raj Kaul
>>>
>>> Cell -  +91-9873297834
>>> Blog: http://activistsdiary.blogspot.com/
>>>
>>> For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live.
>>> _________________________________________
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>>> Critiques & Collaborations
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>>
>

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