The Saudi ban on the Tablighi Jamaat
The Hindu
What is the Tablighi Jamaat? Why has the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia banned the Islamic organisation?
The was at the centre of a controversy in India after dozens of people who attended a religious congregation of the group held at its headquarters in Delhi in March 2020 tested positive for . The Islamic missionary organisation made headlines again this month as it was banned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The country’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs stated on December 6, “Minister of Islamic Affairs Abdullatif Al Alsheikh directed the mosques’ preachers and the mosques that held Friday prayer temporary to allocate the next Friday sermon to warn against (the Tablighi and Da’wah group) which is called (Al Ahbab)”. Calling it “one of the gates of terrorism”, the Saudi Government said “affiliation with partisan groups including the Tablighi “is prohibited in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”.
The Tablighi Jamaat (Society of Preachers) was founded by Deobandi Islamic scholar Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi in Mewat, India in 1926. As its name suggests, Al-Kandhlawi’s goal was to establish a group of dedicated preachers as a Muslim revivalist society, who could revive “true” Islam, which he saw was not being practised by many Muslims.