This extract on Tablighi Jamaat’s Activities in the US is from an article by B. Raman, Additional Secretary (Retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and at present Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai (former Madras). The article is titled ‘Dagestan: Focus On Pakistan's Tablighi Jamaat’.

Mr. Raman can be reached by e-mail at: corde@vsnl.com. The article was dated 15/9/1999 and published at the website of South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG) at: www.saag.org.

Extract from:
DAGESTAN: FOCUS ON PAKISTAN'S TABLIGHI JAMAAT
B. Raman

ACTIVITIES IN THE US

Amongst the organisations in the USA with which the TJ is closely associated are the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA).The President of the ISNA is Sheikh Abdullah Idris Ali, an American immigrant of Sudanese origin, who is also the Pesh Imam and Khatib of a mosque in New York.

The annual convention of the ISNA held at Columbus, Ohio, from September 11,1995, was addressed, amongst others, by Mr.Hamza Yusuf, an American citizen of Greek origin, who, after embracing Islam, had lived for six years in Mauritania to study Islam and then work as a TJ preacher, Mr. Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, the famous pop singer, who embraced Islam after coming into contact with the TJ in Pakistan, Dr.Saghir of Algeria, and Dr.Israr Ahmed, the Amir of the Tanzeem Islami of Pakistan and a worker of the TJ.

Addressing the convention, Dr. Israr Ahmed said: "The process of the revival of Islam in different parts of the world is real. A final show-down between the Muslim world and the non-Muslim world, which has been captured by the Jews, would soon take place. The Gulf war was just a rehearsal for the coming conflict." He appealed to the Muslims of the world, including those in the USA, to prepare themselves for the coming conflict.

The convention was told that the ISNA had a US $ 100 million budget for spreading Islamic education in the US through the publication of text-books, setting-up of week-end Islamic schools and a weekly cable TV programme called "Onsight" which would be available in all the States of the US.

Amongst the alleged members of the TJ in the Muslim community in the US is Mr.Louis Fara Khan, the Black Muslim leader. The TJ operates in the US and the Caribbean directly through its own preachers deputed from Pakistan and also recruited from the Pakistani immigrant community in the US as well as through front organisations such as the Jamaat-ul-Fuqra founded in the 1980s under the leadership of Sheikh Mubarik Ali Gilani, who generally lives in Pakistan, but travels frequently to the US and the Caribbean.

The annual report on the Patterns of Global Terrorism during 1998 issued by the Counter-Terrorism Division of the US State Department states as follows of the Jamaat-ul-Fuqra: "Seeks to purify Islam through violence. Members have purchased isolated rural compounds in North America to live communally, practise their faith and insulate themselves from Western culture. Fuqra members have attacked a variety of targets that they view as enemies of Islam, including Muslims they regard as heretics and Hindus. Attacks during the 1980s included assassinations and fire bombings across the US. Fuqra members in the US have been convicted of criminal violations, including murder and fraud."

In its preachings to the Pakistani immigrants in the US, the TJ has been stressing the importance of cultivating the African-American Muslims in order to counter the lobbying power of the Hindus and the Jewish people. The HUM, which works in tandem with the TJ, has been training African-American Muslims from the US in its training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Writing in the "Dawn" of January 12,1996, Mr. Ghani Eirabie said: " The Ummah must remember that winning over the black Muslims is not only a religious obligation, but also a selfish necessity. The votes of the black Muslims can give the immigrant Muslims the political clout they need at every stage to protect their vital interests. Likewise, outside Muslim states like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Pakistan need to mobilise their effort, money and missionary skills to expand and consolidate the black Muslim community in the USA, not only for religious reasons, but also as a far-sighted investment in the black Muslims' immense potential as a credible lobby for Muslim causes, such as Palestine, Bosnia or Kashmir--offsetting, at least partially, the venal influence of the powerful India-Israel lobby."

Mr.Eirabie wanted the US Muslim community to prepare itself for the day in the second decade of the next millennium when, according to him, the Muslims would emerge as the second largest religious group in the US after the Christians.