the national bureau asian research of nbr special report #22 | february 2010 who speaks for islam? Muslim Grassroots Leaders and Popular Preachers in South Asia By Mumtaz Ahmad, Dietrich Reetz, and Thomas H. Johnson cover 2 The NBR Special Report provides access to current research on special topics conducted by the world’s leading experts in Asian affairs. The views expressed in these reports are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of other NBR research associates or institutions that support NBR. The National Bureau of Asian Research is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution dedicated to informing and strengthening policy. NBR conducts advanced independent research on strategic, political, economic, globalization, health, and energy issues affecting U.S. relations with Asia. Drawing upon an extensive network of the world’s leading specialists and leveraging the latest technology, NBR bridges the academic, business, and policy arenas. 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Muslim Grassroots Leaders and Popular Preachers in South Asia table of contents iii Foreword Peter Mandaville 1 Media-Based Preachers and the Creation of New Muslim Publics in Pakistan Mumtaz Ahmad 29 Muslim Grassroots Leaders in India: National Issues and Local Leadership Dietrich Reetz 41 Religious Figures, Insurgency, and Jihad in Southern Afghanistan Thomas H. Johnson foreword D espite considerable chatter in recent years about the globalization of religious authority in the Muslim world and the importance of transnational networks, public opinion polls conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project in 2006 suggest that the vast majority of Muslims worldwide, including 46% in Pakistan, turn first and foremost to local religious leaders for guidance in matters relating to Islam. This would suggest that in trying to understand “who speaks for Islam” in any particular setting, we would do well to pay close attention to the voices shaping the immediate environments inhabited by Muslims. This NBR Special Report, “Who Speaks for Islam? Muslim Grassroots Leaders and Popular Preachers in South Asia,” explores the changing dynamics of religious order in three key national settings: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. The authors of the three studies that comprise this report are all noted experts on their respective countries, having spent considerable time on the ground observing first hand the production and circulation of religious knowledge at the popular level. Reading across the three cases, several key themes of crosscutting significance seem to emerge. First is the fact that because the nations in question are all ethnically and religiously heterogeneous, deeply embedded sectarian differences and social segmentation has ensued, as Dietrich Reetz points out, such that effective national religious leaderships or state-controlled religion have never emerged (despite the best efforts of certain countries, such as Pakistan). Second, as in much of the Muslim world today, in South Asia the emergence of a wide range of new, nontraditional voices of religious authority is occurring. Where the production of religious knowledge was once the sole preserve of classically trained religious scholars (ulema), there is now a new generation of lay preachers—whose educational backgrounds are often in the medical and scientific fields—rising to the fore. The Mumbai-based preacher Zakir Naik, phenomenally popular in recent years, is a clear case in point. Third, and related to this last point, has been the important role played by new media. The Internet is certainly important here, but in the context of South Asia, satellite television and mobile phone messaging (SMS) have been the main drivers. This use of new media, it is important to note, is by no means confined to the new class of religious voices. More traditional religious scholars have also been quick to seize on the potential of the new tools to reach ever wider audiences. Finally, and here we come squarely to the realm of politics, it is clear that local or provincial religious leaders—and especially some of the traditional pirs, or classical scholars, of the Sufi orders—serve as important interlocutors between society and the state. Here they can have an impact on both formal politics, as in the case of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), the Pakistani political party affiliated with Deobandi scholars, and informally as regional kingmakers or in alliance with tribal leaders, as in the case of some of the madrasah-based networks in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Unique in coverage, this Special Report represents the first systematic inventorying of contemporary religious leadership in South Asia. This report is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand how religious opinion and world-views are shaped in the region today. Peter Mandaville Senior Advisor, Muslim Asia Initiatives The National Bureau of Asian Research Director, Center for Global Studies George Mason University iii the national bureau asian research of nbr special report #22 | february 2010 Media-Based Preachers and the Creation of New Muslim Publics in Pakistan Mumtaz Ahmad MUMTAZ AHMAD is a Professor in Hampton University’s Department of Political Science. His main areas of academic interest are the comparative politics of South Asia and the Middle East, Islamic political thought and institutions, and the comparative politics of contemporary Islamic revivalism. He can be reached at <[email protected]>. NOTE The author wishes to express his gratitude to Professor John L. Esposito of Georgetown University, Professor Tamara Sonn of the College of William and Mary, and Dr. Zafar Ishaq Ansari of Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIU-I), for their valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this essay. The author also acknowledges with thanks the research assistance provided by Muhammad Umer Quddafi, Research Associate at the Iqbal International Institute for Research & Dialogue, IIU-I. 1 ExEcUTivE SUMMAry This essay examines four emerging popular Muslim religious leaders in Pakistan, their use of new media, and their impact on traditional religious authority. Main Findings • Pakistan’s emerging religious authorities use their familiarity with modern disciplines, in addition to their knowledge of traditional sources of Islamic scholarship, to reach a wider audience and to distinguish themselves from the traditionally educated ulema. • The so-called media revolution in Pakistan has enabled nontraditional Islamic religious leaders to reach audiences throughout Pakistan and abroad, especially in the major urban centers. • Though Pakistan’s emerging religious leaders are non-political in their television broadcasts, they are trying to create a Muslim public of their own and to influence Pakistani Muslims’ perspective on Islam. • Nontraditional Islamic religious leaders have been quite successful in establishing a considerable following among the Pakistani communities abroad, especially in Europe and North America, due to the transmission of broadcasts through satellite and cable channels and frequent visits abroad. Policy iMPlications • As the Pakistani government and other powerful social institutions have formally renounced jihad as a principal instrument of foreign policy, nontraditional Islamic religious leaders have been tolerated, and also in many ways promoted, by the state. • In some instances, the emergence of new Islamic religious authorities and the use of new electronic media have allowed Pakistanis to engage in free and uninhibited debate on sensitive religious and socio-political issues. • Pakistan’s new popular Islamic religious leaders have been able to spread their influence to groups previously alienated by more traditional religious authorities, particularly the middle classes and educated women. T his essay will examine the ideas of four Pakistani Islamic scholars who have extensively used the electronic media to disseminate their ideas during the past two decades: Javed Ahmad Ghamidi of Al-Mawarid, Farhat Hashmi of Al-Huda, Israr Ahmad of Tanzim- e-Islami, and Tahirul Qadri of Tehrik Minhaj-ul-Quran. It is difficult to describe these scholars in conventional categories of modern Muslim religio-intellectual thought, given the nuances and interpenetrative dimensions of their ideas and their tendencies to frequently cross ideological boundaries. Generally speaking, however, one can describe Ghamidi as a neo-Islamic liberal, Hashmi as a Salafi, Ahmad as an Islamist-revivalist, and Qadri as a populist-revivalist.1 Although all four of these scholars started their dawa (call to Islam) activities by traditional means—writing pamphlets and books, organizing groups of followers and disciples, addressing small and large gatherings, conducting study circles around the country, and establishing schools, madaris (Islamic schools, plural of madrasah), and Islamic study centers—during the past two decades, their primary medium for propagating their messages and ideas at the popular level has been electronic technology (cassettes, videos, CDs, DVDs, and television channels). Israr Ahmad, Farhat Hashmi, and Tahirul Qadri have their own sophisticated audio and video recording, production, and marketing facilities and are regularly aired on religious channels. Javed Ahmad Ghamidi appears both on regular government and on independent channels, especially on the religious programs of the GEO and ARY channels. Since moving to Canada, Hashmi has been less visible on religious channels, although her cassettes, CDs, and DVDs are widely available in Pakistan and are most popular in the religious gatherings of upper- and middle-class urban women. Qadri has also moved to Canada from where his lectures and sermons are daily broadcast on QTV, a channel that is available on cable and satellite in most Muslim countries and the West. With the exception of Qadri, none of these scholars have received traditional Islamic education in the madrasah system: Ghamidi received a BA (Honors) degree in English from Government College in Lahore, Ahmad is a graduate of King Edward Medical College in Lahore (although he practiced medicine only for a short while), and Farhat Hashmi received her PhD in Islamic Studies from Glasgow University in Scotland. Qadri, after pursuing madrasah education and having served as a khatib (preacher) in a mosque in Lahore, obtained MA, LLB, and PhD degrees in Islamic Studies from the University of Punjab. In addition to claims of religious authority based on their knowledge of traditional sources of Islamic scholarship, all four of these scholars highlight, directly or indirectly, their access to and familiarity with modern disciplines to reach a wider audience and to distinguish themselves from the traditionally educated ulema. With the exception of Ghamidi, all others possess considerable facility with the English language and deliver their lectures in English before mixed audiences. Qadri is the only one among them who speaks Urdu, English, and Arabic with equal facility. In addition to their regular and extensive audience in Pakistan, Ahmad, Qadri, and Hashmi have all been quite successful in establishing a considerable following among Pakistani communities abroad, especially in Europe and North America, owing to the transmission of their broadcasts through satellite and cable channels and their frequent visits abroad. Ahmad has been a pioneer in this regard: he has been visiting North America since the mid-1970s and was the first to establish the North American branches of his three organizations (Markazi Anjuman Khuddam-ul-Quran, Tanzeem-e-Islami, and Tahreek-e-Khilafat Pakistan). Ahmad also has a large number of admirers and followers among the Pakistani communities in the Gulf region. 1 These categories will be defined later in the sections devoted to individual scholars-preachers. 3 Media-Based Preachers and the creation oF new MusliM PuBlics u ahMad Qadri, a scholar of Brelvi persuasion, has a “natural” constituency among the Pakistanis in Britain who have migrated mostly from the rural areas of Punjab and Azad Kashmir. Qadri’s more than 70 lectures in English on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government’s television channel during 1992–93 on different aspects of Islam, the basic teachings of the Quran, and the life and mission of the Prophet have earned him a great deal of popularity in the Gulf region as well. He also has a sizeable following among Pakistanis in Scandinavian countries.2 Hashmi reached Pakistani and Indian Muslim women in the West first through her cassettes and CDs during the 1990s and then through her Quran study circles organized around her lectures and videos. She has recently built a huge Al-Huda complex near Toronto to teach Muslim women from all over North America courses of various durations in Quranic and Islamic Studies. Ghamidi has rarely, if ever, traveled to the West, although his television appearances on different Islamic programs on the GEO, PTV, and AAJ channels are watched with interest by educated Pakistanis in Western countries. A few of his young followers who came to the United States for higher Islamic studies in recent years seem to have moved away from their mentor’s ideas. Javed ahmad ghamidi Ghamidi’s understanding of the message of the Quran is heavily influenced by Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi, Maulana Hamiduddin Farahi, and Maulana Abul Ala Maududi, in that order. Ghamidi is arguably one of the most prominent nontraditionalist Islamic scholars today in Pakistan. In the broader categories of contemporary Islamic intellectual-ideological thought, he can be described as a “neo-Islamic liberal.” Neo-Islamic liberalism is meant here as an intellectual trend that seeks to interpret Islamic texts in their historical context, and makes a clear distinction between the eternal/universal theological- moral teachings of the Quran, on the one hand, and the historically specific socio-institutional and legal injunctions that are amenable to changes in accordance with the new circumstances, on the other. Neo-Islamic liberalism also differentiates between the literal hadith (narrative) and the sunnah (teachings and way of living) of the Prophet, looks with askance at the historical institutional forms of Islam, does not regard the theological and legal formulations of early and medieval Islamic scholars as sacrosanct, and opens the “doors of ijtihad” (independent reasoning). Where neo-Islamic liberalism differs from earlier Islamic liberalism/modernism is in its primary reliance on, and inspiration from, the Quran and the sunnah, rather than on modern Western intellectual and social thought. Religious Education and Influence Born in 1951 in a rural Punjab family, Ghamidi initially pursued a modern education, obtaining a BA (Honors) degree in English from the elite Government College in Lahore in 1972.3 Alongside his modern education, Ghamidi received private tutoring in Arabic, Persian, and the Quranic exegesis in his hometown. After acquiring some degree of proficiency in Arabic, Ghamidi 2 In 2008 an affiliate group of Qadri’s Tehrik Minhaj-ul-Quran in Norway was awarded the prestigious “Oslo Award” both for its efforts toward building bridges between different religious and ethnic communities and for serving the cause of peace in the world. 3 This author first met Ghamidi in 1974 in Lahore. Even at this young age of 23, Ghamidi had acquired considerable reputation as an enlightened and thoughtful Islamic scholar among a sizeable group of college students in Lahore and had started mentoring them in Islamic sciences. Interestingly, by 1974 his young disciples had already started calling him as “Allama” (the great scholar), an honorific title usually reserved for very senior scholars, such as Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the great poet-philosopher of the subcontinent. 4 nBr sPecial rePort u FeBruary 2010