Posted on 07/14/2003 12:29:05 PM PDT by knighthawk
NEW YORK: A prominent Muslim missionary group, Tablighi Jamaat, has come under the scrutiny of US investigators who suspect that al-Qaeda used it for recruiting terrorists, a media report said here on Monday.
Founded in India 75 years ago, Tablighi Jamaat is a conservative Islamic missionary group spread across the globe.
"We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat in the United States, and we have found that al-Qaeda used them for recruiting, now and in the past," Michael J Heimbach, the deputy chief of the FBI's international terrorism section, was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
The group, which describes itself as a non-political, non-violent group interested only in "proselytizing and bringing wayward Muslims back to Islam," attracted US investigators' interest following the September 11 attacks.
Another senior law enforcement official described the group as "a natural entree, a way of gathering people together with a common interest in Islam."
"Then extremists use that as an assessment tool to evaluate individuals with particular zealousness and interest in going beyond what's offered," he said.
According to officials, the group has been "caught up" in terrorist cases because of its global reach and reputation for rejecting such worldly activities as politics, precisely the qualities that are exploited by terror groups like al-Qaeda.
The leaders of Tablighi Jammat said the new scrutiny was "unwanted and grossly unfair" as their beliefs were against everything expoused by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
"It is a very great accusation, a total lie," said Abdul Rahman Khan, a leader of the group's North Amercian council.
Khan, involved with the group for 36 years, said the Tablighi Jamaat's refusal to discuss politics meant that people with "militant views" quickly moved on. "If someone starts even one word, we cut him off. So he's going to go somewhere where he can get an audience."
"We don't prevent anyone from coming, but obviously we don't know the nature of the individual who is coming and we don't check," Khan said. "There's no way we can."
Neither the group nor its activists have been accused of committing any crime or of supporting terrorism. Still, the authorities remain alert to what they see as the organisation's "susceptibility to infiltration and manipulation," the report said.
Tablighi Jamaat in Arabic means "group that propagates the faith," and its members visit mosques and college campuses in small bands, preaching a return to purist Islamic values and recruiting other Muslim men - often youth searching for identity - to join them for a few days or weeks on the road.
According to the report, Tablighi Jamaat, is less a formal organization than a network of part-time preachers. It now has bases and schools in Pakistan, Britain and Canada and its annual gatherings in India and Pakistan draw thousands of people.
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