CONTRARY TO COMMON WISDOM, Muslim radicalism in the
United Kingdom is not rooted in grievance against
British, American, Israeli, or other Western
policies. Nor is it a reaction to fear or prejudice
by non-Muslims. It originates in a specific ideology
imported to the country by two generations of Sunni
Muslim radicals from Pakistan. The domination of
British Islam by that ideology, generally known as
Deobandism, produced the 7/7 bombings and the
trans-Atlantic airline terror plot, and has made
Britain the epicenter of jihadist violence in
Europe.
Deobandism is not an ancient Islamic tradition. It
began in India after the 1857 mutiny against the
British raj, and was originally a fundamentalist,
but peaceful, movement, convinced that the failure
of the mutiny made religious teaching and
cultivation a preferable alternative to violent
combat against foreign rule.
In the aftermath of the Afghan war of the 1980s,
Deobandi students ("Talibs") in Pakistani madrasas,
being already fundamentalist, were noticed by Saudi
agents in the Pakistani military and intelligence
services. They were trained in totalitarian and
terrorist methods and took over Afghanistan as the
governing Taliban. From Pakistan and Afghanistan
their message disseminated through mosques and
madrasas where Pakistani Sunnis
congregate--especially in Britain, America, and
Canada. Because of their financial resources,
proselytizing, and intimidation, they came to
dominate Pakistani Sunni communities abroad.
THUS Rashid Rauf, the alleged trans-Atlantic airline
plotter arrested in Pakistan, is the son-in-law of
Ghulam Mustafa, founder of the Dar Ul-Uloom Madina
madrasa, a hard-line Deobandi school. Rashid Rauf is
also related by marriage to Masood Azhar, a figure
in the 1999 Air India hijacking and close associate
of Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted of
complicity in the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl. Eight
of the 23 suspects detained in the trans-Atlantic
air investigation attended Masjid e-Umer, a Deobandi
mosque.
AFTER THE DESTRUCTION of the Deobandi Taliban
regime, the Pakistani jihadis moved their theater of
operations from Afghanistan to Kashmir, the
Muslim-majority territory joined to India. Fighting
against India got the radicals a pass from the West
since their strategy of terror was there viewed as
an international border problem, rather than an
Islamofascist offensive. Pakistan's President
Musharraf has praised those who fight for Kashmir as
virtuous patriots.
On both sides of the Atlantic, the Kashmir pretext
has unfortunate staying power. Peter Bergin and Paul
Cruickshank recently wrote in the
New Republic,
"how to explain the lure of militancy for [British
Asian Muslims] who travel to Pakistan to become
terrorists? The answer, in many cases, is Kashmir. A
disproportionate number of Pakistanis living in
Great Britain trace their lineage back to Kashmir."
Yet such apologetics face a double-edged reality
test: First, Britain plays no significant role in
the Kashmir debate and therefore has no reason to be
targeted on that grievance. Second, if
Anglo-Pakistani Muslims, who go for terrorist
training in Pakistan, want to blow themselves up,
why not do so
in Kashmir? The real problem
remains global and not local; that of jihadist
Deobandism, not of the Pakistan-India border.
Today, jihad ideology is stronger than ever and
penetrates Pakistani Sunni mosques around the
world, thanks to training of imams and political
and social activities by networks such as
Jama'at-i-Islami (Community of Islam), which is
the dominant fundamentalist movement in Pakistan
and has adherents abroad, as well. Meanwhile,
recruitment for armed jihad in Pakistan,
Kashmir, and Afghanistan is pursued by groups
such as
Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Righteous, or
LET). Financing of the trans-Atlantic air
conspiracy has been traced to the LET front
Jama'at ud-Dawa (Community of the Call to
Religion). LET, with support from the Pakistani
armed forces and intelligence establishment, is
noted for its constellation of terror training
camps and eagerness to involve non-Pakistanis,
and often new Muslims, in operations.
WHAT IS BRITAIN TO DO? Jama'at-i-Islami and
Lashkar-e-Taiba were not included in the roster
of 15 Muslim radical groups banned by the U.K.
authorities late in 2005. Their influence in
mosques and madrasas should be curbed.
Furthermore, British authorities could vet the
appointment of clerics in mosques and it would
be helpful if they replaced imported fanatics
with reputable domestic scholars. Britain has
every right to demand that Muslim clerics be
trained and certified according to a curriculum
emphasizing local loyalty and European standards
of citizenship.
An administrative structure already exists for
the regulation of Sunni Muslim clerics in
Europe--the Dublin-based European Council for
Fatwa[s] and Research. Unfortunately, the
Council is currently headed by a Qatar-based
fundamentalist, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who,
among other things, defends suicide terrorism.
Of its 33 members, 12 are based in Arab and
African countries, including Saudi Arabia and
Pakistan, while the rest represent immigrant
communities, mainly Arab, in Western Europe.
Only one, a Bosnian (who fully repudiates
fundamentalism), is an indigenous European
Muslim. Russian Muslims (of whom there are 23
million) are completely unrepresented on the
council. It makes little sense to have Saudi
clerics--of whom there are four on the
council--participating in a body which is to
guide European Muslims.
If Islam is to survive in Britain, it must
reject the theological, political, and social
blandishments of Saudi and Pakistani radicals.
There should be no more tolerance of the misuse
of British and Western hospitality by its sworn
enemies.
Stephen Schwartz is a frequent contributor to
The Weekly Standard.
!["Salaat ul-janaza [Funeral service] of Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi Al Maliki, The Grand Mosque in Mecca, October 2004](../images/janazahmalki.JPG)
