Tablighi Jamaat and its role in the Global Jihad

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Abstract

This SADF Policy Brief deals with Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), a transnational Islamic missionary movement. Despite declaring itself as officially apolitical and non-violent, TJ is cited by German and other European intelligence reports that underline (manifold) threats originating from the movement. An increasing number of assessments emphasise TJ’s function as a catalyst, gateway, springboard, or antechamber for an extreme and militant interpretation of Islam – indoctrinating Muslims into Jihadists. Experts point out that TJ ‘has appeared on the fringes of several terrorism investigations, leading some to state that its apolitical stance simply masks a “fertile ground for breeding terrorism”’. In spite of this, up until this point, the majority of critical evaluations by international intelligence have not reached public discourse or political decision-making processes in the states where TJ holds a significant presence. Especially in Europe and the US, TJ remains largely unknown outside Muslim communities – and when known, actions and motives are misread. This lack of knowledge regarding the dissemination of an Islamic supremacist agenda facilitates TJ’s function as a driving force for Islamic extremism and as a major recruiting agency for the cause of Global Jihad - the movement bluntly threatens societies based on liberal and democratic norms. TJ has a relatively clandestine character, but reports point to TJ being extremely effective at spreading Islamic fundamentalism. In sum, TJ is seen as an essential component of a phenomenon which the French political- sociologist Bernard Rougier (2020) calls an ‘Islamist Ecosystem’. We believe this concept is most useful to understand the role that TJ plays in the Global Jihad.