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SIMI & Its Alarming Growth

SIMI & Its Alarming Growth

Author: R. Upadhyay
Publication: South Asia Analysis Group
Date: April 22, 2008
URL: http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers27/paper2676.html

The recent arrest of SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) activists and supporters followed by media exposure of their jehadi training camps, widespread network in the country from north to south, its direct or indirect involvement in almost all the Islamist terror attacks in the country and link with various terror groups and their controllers in Pakistan and Bangladesh has reaffirmed its jihadi character which I had discussed earlier ( vide paper no. 825 dated October 30, 2003 of this site).

Known for militant expression of jihad ever since its inception in October 1977 as a student front of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind it continues to believe in fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. The most worrying part of the situation is that how could this organisation which is banned since September 2001 dodge the police and activate its sleeping cells in most regions of the country and assist in successful execution of terror attacks in places like Mumbai, Delhi, Malgaon, Varanasi, Ayodhya, Bangalore and Hyderabad?

SIMI was initially banned by Government of India in September 2001 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 due to its reported working relation with Al Qaida, Taliban and other Islamist terrorist groups. The ban was further extended from time to time and it is still an unlawful organisation. SIMI challenged the ban in Supreme Court and sought its revocation. However, the bench did not entertain it and cautioned the petitioner to either withdraw the petition or get it dismissed. The counsel appearing on behalf of SIMI subsequently chose to withdraw the petition. Some news paper reports suggested that the serial blasts in a local train in Bombay on July 11, 2006 were apparently planned to show its ire against the ban by the government and refusal of the Supreme Court to revoke it.

Inspired by the ideology for Islamic revival movements launched by Darul Uloom Deoband and Maulana Maudoodi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, SIMI still stands for radical change in the socio-political character of Muslims in India, supports to the jehadi interpretation of Islamic scriptures and has assisted various Islamist terrorist groups to destabilise the country. In a changed political environment its plan for revival of resurgent Islam in India in a more coordinated manner with an overall objective of Islamising India and to challenge the hegemony of Christian tradition at international level is something which is more worrisome. The most alarming point of the episode is the rising clout of SIMI among the educated Muslim youths and students in technical institutes. Some of the arrestees are known to be engineers and doctors.

Although, the security agencies deserve full credit for the prized catch of SIMI activists and for unearthing vital information, it has posed a question before the Government, Political leadership and Muslim intellectuals as to how a banned organisation could expand its network to the extent of challenging the political system in the country. In fact most of the major terrorist attacks in which involvement of SIMI is suspected took place after the organization was banned in 2001. Had security agencies been alert since the beginning of the ban, a number of innocent people would not have died. However, it may not be fair to put entire blame on security agencies.

It is an open secret that the security agencies are always under strong pressure of political leadership of states and centre that are more concerned of Muslim votes than action against Jehadi forces. Due to such political pressure security agencies often develop go slow attitude in dealing with Muslim organizations and overlook their subversive activities. Similarly, some of the so called human right groups always come forward in favour of Muslim organisatons even if they are found involved in anti-national activities. They raise hue and cry against the government on arrest of Muslim activists. Thirdly, the Islamic priestly class is not ready to accept the fact that Muslim youths are involved in terrorism in the name of Islam. Hardly any one of them has explicitly condemned SIMI or any Islamist terrorist groups by name. All these factors are the reasons behind the clandestine growth of the alarming jehadi plan of SIMI without any effective challenge from the police.

A number of Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Ambila Soni, Prakash Jaiswal and others had opposed the first ban on SIMI in 2001 when NDA was in power (Sulekha.com). But surprisingly, the same Congress party led UPA Government extended the ban in 2006, which was criticized by Muslim press. The Milli Gazette while quoting a Hyderabad based Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee floated by some influential section of Muslims strongly condemned the attitude of UPA Government towards SIMI and expressed concern over the extension of ban. Teesta Setalwad, a known human right activist had blamed the Hindus for terror attacks in Malegaon. After investigation the security agency found that terrorists were the members of SIMI. Setalwad is again active to defend the suspected SIMI supporters arrested recently.

Islamic priestly class condemned terrorism during All India Anti-Terrorism Conference at Deoband in February last but instead of condemning the activities of SIMI some of the speakers defended it and said no court has ever convicted a single member of it. In fact that some of the SIMI activists were convicted by POTA courts in 1906. They also maintained that case has been blown out of proportion by media while the common Muslim students were ignorant of this organization (Booklet of deliberations).

Like all the Islamist terrorist outfits SIMI has also considered USA as enemy of Islam and supported the jihad call of Osama bin Laden against 'Western Crusader'. Deoband conference too used the same language of Osama bin Laden against America. Stand of Deoband on Islamic issues is highly appreciated by the Sunni Muslims of the country and therefore similarity of its language with Osama has reduced the chances of isolating SIMI from the Muslim community. Defending the SIMI by Islamic clergies is therefore, the main reason behind the growth of SIMI and its effective dent in various parts of the country. In fact its success in brainwashing a sizeable section of even modern educated Muslim youths in terror ideology was not possible without the support of priestly class.

The increasing growth of SIMI has now become a great challenge to the country. However, in absence of proper space for wider debate in Muslim fora on its growing influence, the menace has alarmingly increased. The persistent criticism of law enforcing agencies by the Muslim clergies over the arrest of innocent Muslim youths always obstructed efforts to counter the growth of SIMI by the security agencies. In fact a significant number of jobless Muslim youths passing out every year from hardline Islamist institutions are easily influenced by the ideology of the SIMI for restoration of the institution of Khilafat. If the Islamist priestly classes are really serious in condemnation of terrorism, they are to come out openly and aggressively challenge the SIMI as they had raised a war cry in Shahbano case or against Danish cartoonists. They issued fatwa against Taslima Nasrin for her alleged anti-Islamic writings but why don't they issue such fatwa against SIMI if its terrorist actions are against the tenet of Islam? They blame the Government for alleged maligning the image of Muslims but they are not raising voice against SIMI which is also responsible for adversely affecting the image of the community and defaming their religion. It shows that no effort has been made by them to erase the jehadi spirit from the mindset of thousands of Muslim youths who have already been brainwashed by SIMI.

SIMI may not be the main voice of Muslim students of the country. However, its steady growth could be possible only due to indifference of the general students and lack of visible resistance against it. Its exposure in recent arrest has therefore created a general impression that it is the main representative body of the Muslim youths and students. Since no Islamic organization has come forward to challenge the jehadi spirit of SIMI, which fully supports Osama bin Laden in his Jehad on behalf of Ummah , it is difficult for Muslim youths to rise and counter the march of SIMI. Such indifference of Islamic bodies not only indicts them indirectly for the death of innocent people in terror attacks but also keeps the larger majority in the community in perpetual confusion.

The main goal of SIMI is Islamisation of India by recruiting Ansaars for jehadi onslaught on non-believers. Its activities of over last three decades suggest that it has been on an informal war march against India ever since its inception. With direct or indirect support from the indigenous Islamist infrastructure as well as secularist forces, human rights activists, go slow attitude of security agencies and Muslim vote bank greed of politicians, SIMI took India as a soft state and increased its strength steadily. The deeply ingrained religious intolerance and the violent burden of historical luggage being carried by it have adversely affected the Islamic ethos of forbearance and liberalism as projected by some saner section in the community. Generating negative energy in the name of religion by the self-appointed guardians of Muslim students only accelerated the widening divide between the Hindus and the Muslims. In contemporary India it is also the responsibility of the present generation of Muslim students to give a wake up call to their co-religionists for developing a twenty-first century mindset, which does not approve religious hegemony of any community. Ironically, the Muslim students are not ready to counter the jihadi interpretation of Islam as carried out by SIMI. It is the need of the time.

Reason behind the indifferent attitude of the Muslim theologians and intellectuals may be that they are also scared of SIMI and are therefore not coming out openly to challenge them. The larger majority of the non-believers on the other hand are seen to be hesitant to raise their voice aggressively to avoid any communal confrontation on the issue. The only solution to this impasse is that both the Muslim and Hindu leaders irrespective of their party affiliation should come to a joint platform to unearh the sleeping cells of SIMI and its supporters and produce them for legal action before the government.

National focus on recent exposure of SIMI might have stemmed embarrassment for Deoband. However, it has also provided an opportunity to this institution, which has emerged as the Markaz (Central authority) of Sunni Islam in India to modify its stand on SIMI it had made during All India Anti-Terrorism Conference and also issue a mandatory Islamic fatwa declaring it as an enemy of Islam.

(The Author can be reached at e-mail ramashray60@rediffmail.com)


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