Author: Arun Shourie
Publication: The Observer
Date: December 16, 1994
'Muslims all over the world including
those of India were hopefully looking up to Pakistan for help and guidance
and whatever happened in Pakistan or any other Muslim country cast its
shadow on the Indian Muslims also. The Pakistani debacle of 1971 had caused
immense grief to Indian Muslims.'
The speaker? Maulana Abul Hassan
ALi Nadvi, otherwise known as Ali Mian, whom the press always refers to
as the widely respected scholar and moderate Muslim leader. The source
of the extract? An official note. The occasion? The reception given by
the secretary-general of the Pakistan National Alliance to delegates of
the First Asian Islamic Conference at Karachi in July 1978. Almost all
important leaders of Islamic orthodoxy in India had gone for the meeting
- from the Darul Uloom Deoband, the organisation without reading the publications
of which our press lauds as the Al Azhar of India, from the Jamat-e-Islami
Hind, the Tabligh Jamaat, the JUUH...Naturally, Ali Mian was among the
most prominent delegates.
The convenor of the conference?
The Rabita-e-Alam-e-Islami, Mecca, set up by the King of Saudi Arabia,
which among other things, decides which Islamic body the world over shall
get how much money. Among the founding members of the Rabita? Ali Mian,
the moderate leader.
In whose view, "A religious order
cannot be established unless religion comes to weild political power and
the system of governance is based on Islamic foundations?" Who lauds the
"lofty idealism" and the "mature political outlook" of Iqbal which "lay
at the base of the demand for Pakistan?" Who has scorn for the "the modernists
of the Middle East - from Ataturk to Nasser - and who exhorts the King
of Saudi Arabia to hold fast to the ways of orthodox Islam? On whose reckoning
did the arrival of Islam alone raise the country from "the age of savagery
to the age of progress," from "oblivion and obscurity" to "the pinnacle
of name and fame," from its "parochial ambit" to "the family of man?" In
whose view the slaughtering of the cows is "a great Islamic act?" In whose
view, while it may not be so in other countries, in India it is "a great
Islamic act" because the cow is worshipped in India?
The answer to each question: Ali
Mian, the head of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, the rector of
the Nadwatul Ulema, Lucknow.
At the moment I am not on the question
these views are justified or not, but on the more elementary one: We do
not bother to learn the views of the] person, we do not ascertain the idealogy
which the "scholarly" works of the Nadwatul Ulema spreads, but the moment
the place is raided a howl goes up. The minister of the state for internal
security apologises. A cabinet minister from Delhi rushes and apologises.
The chief minister of UP apologises. Two police officers - one of the rank
of IG and the other DIG - are transfered out.
Look at how the place came to raided.
In the aftermath of the kidnapping of foreigeners and the subsquent encounter
six persons were caught. Interro- gation revealed that the operation had
been masterminded by the now well- known student of the London School of
Economics, and one "Shahji" of Pakistan. The latter had escaped. But during
interrogation, one of the others disclosed the house in which the man stayed
- in Suiwala mohalla in old Delhi. The place was raided.
"Shahji" had not been to the place
since the encounter, it transpired. But a briefcase was found. It yielded,
among other things, an identity card of the Lucknow University and a railway
ticket which had been used for a journey from Lucknow to Delhi on NOv.14,
1994. The identity card was taken to the University authorities in Lucknow.
They established that it was a forgery.
A reservation had been secured against
the railway ticket. Records were examined and it turned out that the reservation
had been made for one "Khursheed Ahmed" who had given his address as Room
20/2 Athar Hostel, Nadwatul Ulema, Lucknow.
It was this reason that the place
was raided that very night. When the policemen were trying to break open
the door of the room, students surrounded them, started throwing stones
etc. It is said that a country-made "bomb" was also hurled at them. The
police fired, in self-defence, and in the air, they say.
The raid was effectively thwarted.
The police had to retreat. The room could not be searched. The seven boys
who had been picked up could not be interrogated - Mulayam Singh insured
that they were released before they could be questioned.
How can it be held that officers
of the rank of IG and DIG are not competent to decide whether or not to
conduct a raid upon the receipt of specific information? By what law can
it be held that because an institution is a "minority institution" or "an
educational institution" it is outside the reach of the police?
Now is it just that the position
is so totally without any basis in law. What nails the matter is intelligence
information about the manner in which ISI as well as agencies of the other
Islamic countries are executing their plans in India.
Intelligence reports submitted to
the highest levels of government document show the recent phase of the
activity of these organisations began with the Taif Summit of the OIC in
January 1981. How funds began to be systematically channeled through the
Rabita-e-Alam-Islami, the organisation we encountered earlier, the Motmar
al Alam al Islami and the Supreme World Council of Mosques. How these funds
were given to mosques, madarsas, "centers of Islamic learning" and other
Islamic organisations.
How the overseas Islamic organisations
and their funds spawned a series of organisations in India and invigorated
others. The Supreme World Council of Mosques, for instance, was established
as a wing of the Rabita-e-Alam-e- Islami in 1978. In March 1980, this new
organisation passed a resolution asking the Indian government "to show
due reverence to Muslim houses of worship" and to reserve a suitable portion
of its budget "for Muslim affairs." In October the same year, the parent
organisation, the Rabita asked the Indian government that it be allowed
to open an office in India "for Muslim affairs".
How the Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami
Hind was a member of the executive of the Supreme World Council. How as
a follow up of these initiatives, the JEI lost no time in establishing
the ALl-India Council of Mosques at the Jamaat's All-India Conference at
Hydrabad in February 1981.
How the Hydrabad meeting was closely
guided by Sheikh Ali Mohammed al Mukhtar, the assistant secretary-general
of the Supreme World Council.
How a systematic attempt began thereafter
to transform the mosques in India into live centers of indoctrination and
to knit them into a network.
How other organisations, hitherto
unknown, suddenly became very energetic and prominent - among these the
Jammat Ahl-e-Hadees and the organisation from which pressmen receive statements
regularly these days, the All India Milli Council. How this Council had
hardly been known till one Dr. Manzoor Alam returned from Saudi Arabia
about five years ago, and how it soon became the fastest growing Muslim
organisation in India. How apart from Dr manzoor Alam, Mujahid-ul-Islam
Kasmi, the Qazi of that other "center of Islamic learning," the Imarat-e-Sharia
of Bihar is its most important functionary.
How it has very substantial funds
at its disposal, most of which come from Saudi Arabia. How it is in close
touch with fundamentalist and militant organisations like SIMI, the Students
Islamic Movement of India, which had been set up in 1977 by the Jamaat-e-Islami
Hind. How the All-India Milli Council and similar bodies have been systematically
projecting militant and sectarian positions and fomenting a separatist
mentality among targetted Muslim groups.
The intelligence reports speak of
the rapid linking-up of these organisa- tions: Ahmed Ali, alias Palani
Baba, President of the All India Jihad Committee, a militant outfit operating
in Tamil Nadu, for instance is recorded as having asked his followers to
work in coordination with the All-India Milli Council. How in early 1993,
the Majlis-e-Numaindgan (the Council of Representatives) of the Jamaat-e-Islami
Hind asked its general secretaries to set up an underground organisation,
how its rukuns (active members) were asked to develop links with other
Islamic bodies in every state.
The intelligence reports set out
how ISI has set up operations in Nepal and Bangladesh. They specify the
"organisations" which have been set up there through which Islamic organisations
in India are being contacted and aided. They specify the "conferences"
which have been organised in these countries as a cover for "scholars"
and "theologians" to visit the places so as to cement the network. They
speak of similar "conferences" in Iran and Saudi Arabia, of the Indian
"scholars" who went there, and of the fallout for India. They speak of
the great spurt in the number of "Islamic missionaries" coming to India
in the last few years, and how the purpose of their coming here, to employ
the officialise which these documents feel compelled to use, is solely
to guide and encourage the Islamic institutions and organisations here.
The intelligence reports record
how Muslims young men have been recruited for training in arms and explosives
through organisations like SIMI, and the Islamic Sevak Sangh now rechristined
as the People's Democratic Party in Kerala, how the functionaries of these
organisations have played host to militants and the recruiting agents.
And so on. Much of this information
has come from the horse's mouth, so to say - for it has been obtained as
a result of interrogation of terrorists and others who have been caught
in the last five years.
Given this background and the obvious
urgency of the matter, what are senior police officers to do when they
chance upon information pointing to a specific room in a specific building
- be that a private house, a government office, a Hindu's house or a Muslim's
house, an educational institution, or a "minority eductional institution?"
Perhaps the information should have
been cross-checked for any one can give any address while obtaining a railway
reservation. But what if the person had escaped in the meanwhile? In any
case, is it not for the officer on the spot to weigh the alternatives?
Instead of allowing government to
penalise officers for doing their duty, we should:
*Have the government disclose the
pattern intelligence agencies have formed about the way Islamic organisations
are being used to jeopardise peace in the country;
*Urge that the government raid these
places - and other places as the recent events at ISRO show - routinely
so that it is established once for all that no organisation shall be a
State within a State.
