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, Centre for Modern Oriental Studies
, Centre for Modern Oriental Studies
Results of
the Field Study conducted by PD Dr. Dietrich Reetz 
Results
of the Field Study conducted by Thomas Gugler
PD Dr. Dietrich Reetz and Thomas K. Gugler focus on the missionary
activities of the South Asian Islamic groups Tablighi Jama´at
(TJ) and Da´wat-e Islami (DI) in several European
countries. Their topic is the formation and discourses of these
movements as well as their strategies of adaption and dissociation.
While these missionary movements raise questions about the attitude
of secular Muslims in Europe, they also shape the emerging composite
European identity. Both movements endeavour to motivate Muslims
to re-focus on their societies of origin. At the same time these
groups are obliged to adapt to the local situation in Europe,
where they hope to create conditions that enable Muslims to live
their lives in consonance with Islam.
Both movements want Muslims to practice Islam more broadly, based
on the custom of the founder generation of Islam, the Sunnah.
It is their intention to strengthen religious beliefs and reinforce
the observance of religious practice. As a rule, they do not seek
to convert non-Muslims. Both movements have extended their activities
beyond their countries of origin and established a significant
presence in Western Europe with their own networks. They set up
regional centres (marakaz), where permanent local representatives
coordinate their activities. These centres are occasionally attached
to mosques and/or religious schools (madrasas), and grass
roots activities are mainly conducted by groups of lay preachers.
This case study seeks to explore how these movements adapt their
missionary endeavour to the European area of operation and the
impact their activities may have there. Via field and literature
studies it aims to evaluate the connections of these movements
to Pakistan and India and to observe the structure and dynamics
of their global activism. Observing their translocal connections
between Europe and South Asia is crucial to grasping the nature
of their missionary work, which crosses geographical, political
and cultural borders effortlessly. The intention of the project
is to explore whether these missionary activities will lead to
a further dissociation of Muslims from their host societies in
Europe or whether their more strict observance of Islamic norms
will give some of them a new sense of identity and thus be conducive
to greater integration.
Both groups embrace a new trend in which the understanding of
the Muslim community (ummah) is no longer tied to a specific
territory – indeed they claim that true Muslims constitute
a minority everywhere. As they revise the concept of a physical
frontier between the land of believers (Dar-ul-Islam)
and non-believers (Dar-ul-Harb), they confront western
secularism and rationalism among European Muslims. Young Muslims,
particularly university students, are the main target group of
both movements in Germany.
The movements also aim at recasting Muslim identities by emphasising
certain symbols and attributes. A strict dress code that includes
the traditional long white shirt and baggy trousers (shalwar
qamis) of the South Asian Muslims makes them easy to identify
in public. In addition, followers of the DI wear a green turban.
The activities of both movements include missionary journeys
of a fixed duration in small groups, as well as weekly and annual
congregations (ijtema´).
While the TJ and DI show many similarities, they represent two
rival interpretations of south Asian Islam compete for influence
and to have an impact within the Muslim community. The TJ emerged
in 1926 and follows the purist Deobandi tradition named after
an Islamic school founded in 1867 in the North Indian city of
Deoband. The DI was formed in 1980 in response to TJ activities.
It is more closely related to the folk religious tradition and
the Sufism represented by the Barelwi tradition, named after Bareilly,
a neighbouring village of Deoband where the founder of this school
of thought, Ahmad Reza Khan (1856-1921), resided. This rivalry
has led – at least in South Asia – to tension. The
Barelwis have published several polemical pamphlets against the
TJ, albeit from a pragmatic religio-sociological point of view
their aims, approach and mode of operation resemble each other
closely.
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