By Sunil Raman
Hardline Wahabis and Salafis are attracting new converts.
Recent months have brought several reports of Indian Muslims being arrested and deported back from the Middle East or, as in January, arrested by Syrian forces while attempting to cross into ISIS-controlled territory. One Indian Muslim has now joined ISIS in Afghanistan.
For comparison, a hundred Syrians are now reported to have overstayed their visa period and have “disappeared” inside India. Indeed, the number of Muslim men from India joining ISIS is negligible when compared even with the U.K. and other European countries. But the growing influence of radical ideas in a country with over 150 million Muslims (the third largest in the world) has long been flagged by security experts as cause for concern.
The worry is that what al-Qaeda could not achieve ISIS can: attract Indian Muslims through social media and win new supporters. Over the decades Saudis used Zakat money (Muslim aid) to build new mosques and seminaries in India that have radicalized younger Muslims and put them on an ultra-conservative path.
A growing number of mosques, madrasas and educational institutions are funded by Saudi Arabia, and the rising number of followers of Islamic sects that are more conservative and exclusivist in nature poses new challenges. Wahabis and Salafis are attracting new followers and supporters in parts of India where Islam in practice has traditionally had South Asian cultural traits. States in South India with better education indices and economic wellbeing seem to have more sympathizers among younger Muslims.
For decades Indian governments remained indifferent to Saudi funding; critics of unregulated growth of Islamic schools and presence of Wahabi teachers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Gulf countries were branded alarmists. The division of India in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan saw political debate in the country acquire a “Muslim restraint” where governments steered clear of “interfering” in activities of Muslim communities.
Read the full story at The Diplomat