New Age Islam

Radical Islamism & Jihad

29 Sep 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

Radical Islamism is Not a Carrot

By Nadeem F. Paracha

But as most of them were highly militant and eventually got themselves ‘strategically’ linked with certain sections of the radicalised military institutions, it were the evangelical movements that managed to reap the most success within the country’s chaotic and uncertain social and cultural milieu. The largest of them was also the oldest. The ranks of the Tableeghi Jamat (TJ), a highly ritualistic Deobandi Islamic evangelical movement, swelled. But since the TJ was more a collection of working-class and petty-bourgeoisie cohorts and fellow travelers, newer evangelical outfits emerged with the idea of almost exclusively catering to the growing ‘born again’ trend being witnessed in the county’s middle and upper-middle classes in the 1990s. Three of the most prominent organisations in this context were Farhat Hashmi’s Al-Huda, Zakir Naik’s ‘Islamic Research Foundation’ and Babar R. Chaudhry’s Arrahman Araheem (AA). -- Nadeem F. Paracha http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamRadicalIslamismAndJihad_1.aspx?ArticleID=5585