Tablighi Jamaat and the Quest for the London Mega Mosque

Continuity and Change

Z. Pieri

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781349499274
  9781137464385
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137464392
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Social Sciences

The book charts the attempts of Islam's largest missionary movement, the Tablighi Jamaat, to build Europe's largest mosque in London. Key themes include how Islamic movements engage and adapt within liberal democracies and how local contexts are key in understanding how and why movements operate in a given way.

C H A P T E R 1

---

Introduction

On July 6, 2005, Great Britain won the bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Crowds thronged the streets of London waving flags, with official parties held in East London’s Stratford and centrally in Trafalgar Square. The mood in the capital was one of jubilation and triumph. The very next day, on the morning of July 7, four bombs were detonated on London’s public transport system. The bombings injured several hundred people and killed 52. The celebrations were cut short; the context in Britain transformed overnight. Islamic extremists were tied to the bombings, and the religion of the bombers, Islam, was securitized. Muslim communities were viewed with suspicion. For some, this was indication that Britain’s favored policy of multiculturalism failed, and that in its place the emphasis should be on community cohesion. This new context would have particular ramifications for Tablighi Jamaat (TJ)—a nonengaging, Islamic, theocratic, and missionary movement wanting to build Britain’s largest mosque in the East end of London, and only a short distance from the then planned Olympics Stadium.

TJ has a long history in Britain as being one of the first Islamic organizations to be established there after World War II, although it tends to function among Muslim communities and, where possible, avoids interaction with a wider society. For a long time, TJ has wanted to construct a flagship mosque in London that would function both as a place of prayer and as a processing and dispatch center for its missionary activities. TJ acquired their 18-acre plot in West Ham in 1996 and intended to use it as a Muslim foundation, incorporating a mosque, an Islamic boarding school, and accommodation to house traveling missionary groups.

TJ erected a temporary mosque on the land consisting of interconnected portacabins and a car park. The mosque functions all days in a week and can accommodate up to 3,000 male worshipers. After London won the bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012, TJ wanted to develop an iconic mosque dedicated to the movement’s purposes and to act as a Muslim hub for the Games. Original plans for the new mosque called for a building accommodating up to 70,000 worshippers, a proposal that sparked mass controversy and earned it the epithet of “Mega Mosque.” TJ leaders were forced to reconsider and downsize their aspirations. Plans were further thwarted when TJ’s site gained strategic importance to Newham Council for the delivery of new housing and economic development. TJ was told that any redevelopment of the site would have to be of mixed use and of value to the wider community. TJ has been staunch in wanting the site to feature a large mosque and amenities important to the functioning of TJ.

The focus of this book is on TJ and its struggle in post-7/7 context to build a large mosque in London. The term “struggle” is used consciously, for the post-7/7 period has been characterized by the securitization of Islam and scrutiny over ambitious projects—at times with good cause—involving Islamic organizations. The book concentrates on how TJ navigates the British context to gain permission to construct the proposed mosque. It is a study of how elites shape and direct a movement in goal attainment and how movements such as TJ learn to adapt to local contexts (even if in a strategic way) as a means of ensuring the survival and growth of the organization. The politics of mosque construction become important, as do questions over citizenship, identity, and integration of minorities. Of prime importance is the question of what happens to theocratic and traditionally disengaged groups such as TJ that seek to advance major projects when government policy promotes active and engaged citizenship and uses this as the standard by which to judge groups and their proposed projects.

The securitization of Islam across liberal democracies has meant that Islamic organizations wishing to make claims on public space can no longer do so from a position of isolationism. They are expected to demonstrate that they are open, tolerant, and engaged with wider communities. This impacted the way TJ operates in Britain. Securitization is defined as

the process of turning a community or issue from a political matter to a threat. It is something deemed to be so concerning that it bypasses normal political debate and becomes an emergency—for example imposing a control order on an individual just in case they do something wrong. (Jenkins 2011)

This book recognizes and challenges the overwhelming tendency to homogenize Muslims in Britain and Europe. There is no single Muslim community in Britain or Europe but rather multiple Muslim communities and individuals within those communities differ as much as individuals from other communities. As Lewis (2007) writes:

Not only is Islam used to eclipse other identities, ethnic class or professional, many of which Muslims share with their fellow citizens, but Islam is in danger of being essentialized—reduced to some unchanging essence and pathologized. All too often, journalistic and political commentary on Islam supposes that actual ethnic particularities are subordinate to the aspirational rhetoric of belonging to one, undivided, worldwide community—the ummah. The reality is quite different.

In recent years, a number of texts emerged that further challenge the idea of a uniform Muslim community in Britain and started to impact policy toward Muslim communities (Abbas 2005b; Modood 2007; Ansari 2009; ChangeInstitute 2010; Esposito 2010). In the changing context, there has been growing demand that Muslims conform to a notion of Britishness—a concept that is still ill-defined, but which British Prime Minister David Cameron (2014) tried to better articulate. Stuart Croft argues that Britishness does not currently include people with a Muslim identity: “the rigid construction of Britishness not only excludes British Muslims but also securitizes them by viewing them as a suspect community” (Croft in Jenkins 2011).

In 1926, Maulana Mohammad Ilyas established TJ as a movement in India. It now has a presence in over 165 countries, and an estimated 80 million Muslims worldwide take part in its activities (Mohammed 2011: 2). Often described as a movement founded by Muslims and for Muslims—a revivalist organization seeking to reignite the spirit of Islam among the grassroots of Muslim communities across the globe—TJ has largely remained apart from the “mainstream” of Western societies to which it expanded (Metcalf 2004). It is a theocratic movement—“one in which persons endeavour to live according to the dictates of a religious conception of the good that is strict and comprehensive in its range of teachings” (Swaine 2006: 72). TJ fixates on working at reviving Islamic codes of conduct, including dress code, ways of eating and sleeping, manners as dictated by the Shari’a, nonengagement with non-Muslims, and abstinence from political activities. It is the practice of nonengagement that is viewed as problematic in community cohesion–driven contexts of the post-9/11 and post-7/7 periods and is an impediment to the prospects of TJ in Britain.

TJ is not a monolithic organization. Its modes of operation can vary depending on the context it finds itself in—sometimes varying within a country as much as between countries. TJ narratives often speak of a unified movement: unity in methods and ideology. This, however, is not always the case. TJ is able to adapt methods and reinterpret ideology in the light of local contexts. This book recognizes TJ’s existence in a number of different forms. This includes TJ as a global movement based in and led from Nizamuddin, TJ in the national context (Britain, Australia, Pakistan, etc.), TJ in the local context (London, Sydney, Karachi, etc.), and, of course, TJ as lived and experienced by individuals. Distinguishing between the different forms of the movement will help to dispel any illusions about its uniformity and allow for exploration of how TJ works and adapts at local levels, as well as the extent of coordination and direction from the established hierarchy.

TJ has tried to avoid any interaction with non-Muslims for the majority of its history. To gain permission to construct a new mosque in London, TJ leaders—since 2006—tentatively embarked on a process of sociopolitical engagement. Their aim was to convince government officials and planning regulators of its openness, tolerance, and willingness to work with local government and the wider community. This has been a difficult process for TJ and has been manifested as a strategic repositioning of discourse to achieve TJ goals. Initially, the process of engagement in Western countries has been viewed by TJ as a means to an end—an instrumental strategy to allow their projects to progress, TJ leaders in London may not have anticipated the impact of sustained interaction with the “other.” The argument is that through the process of engagement, TJ leaders in London began to be socialized into the expectations of liberal democracies.

In London, TJ’s methods have been reexamined and reframed. It is a step too far to say that ideology changed or developed in a substantial manner. TJ leaders publicly asserted that through engagement with non-Muslims opportunities would also emerge for proselytization and a furtherance of the movement’s work. At the same time, interaction with local government and planning officials allowed for the “other” to critique and challenge TJ’s positions, leading the movement to reformulate messaging to resonate with wider societal norms.

A key concept reflected upon through much of the book is that of engagement. Engagement in the context of the post-9/11 and post-7/7 milieus has come to dominate the agenda in liberal democracies as the standard all groups in the society must strive to (Cantle 2001; Home-Office 2005; Robinson 2005; Singh 2007; Kalra and Kapoor 2008). Engagement is seen as the basis for good citizenship. Michael Schudson argues that engaged citizens are those who “scan the environment and intervene or get active only when a threat is sensed” (1998: 310). Although this does not explain the exact instances when and where individuals or groups may become active within the sociopolitical sphere, it highlights that one need not be active all the time, but only when the need is felt.

Philip Lewis argues that Muslim communities in the West often go through different stages as part of the process of integration—with engagement having profound effects (2011). Requests for sociopolitical and cultural recognition often cause some form of conflict or contestation. This contestation should be seen as a positive sign—a sign that both sides are negotiating the acceptance of the other and, if managed properly, can result in adaptation and integration (Lewis 2011). This is not a one-way process, but one in which all sides involved have to recognize that some adjustment is necessary—even if the level of this may vary for each party and depend on its position within a given system. It is this process of adaptation that some TJ leaders in London have tried to negotiate and will be examined in this book.

For Lewis, the first stage in the adaptation process involves being caught between nostalgia and alienation. First-generation Muslims in a non-Muslim society are often marked by a separation from the “mainstream” of that society—both as a consequence of simply being new and unsure of the context, and because of misperceptions of migrants on the part of the host society (Lewis 2011). The second stage sees second-generation “migrants”—born in the “host” nation—no longer seeing themselves as migrants. They are familiar with the culture, can speak the language, and so expect to have some needs accommodated by their state.¹ This is where the process of engagement is important: second-/third-generation Muslims may ask for provisions such as halal meat in schools, Shari’a-compliant banking, and space for worship.

Empirical data gathered for this book are based on a mixed-method approach. Extensive observation research at a number of TJ-affiliated sites, interviews with TJ grassroots adherents and leaders, as well as a comprehensive reading of primary Tablighi literature were completed. Extensive notes were taken during talks given at Tablighi mosques and public engagement functions attended by TJ in London. The observation research and the interviews focused on the ways in which Tablighis negotiate the process of adaptation through strongly held religious beliefs and in contexts that do not always recognize the validity of those beliefs.

An emphasis is also placed on understanding everyday routines and rituals of Tablighis. This allows for comprehending the subjective meanings members of the movement, and especially its leaders, assign to social processes, including that of moving isolationism to engagement. At the same time, conversations and interviews with senior Tablighis and grassroots members covered broad-ranging subjects from TJ history and its core ideologies, to what shape missionary tours take and how decisions are made. It is hoped that through the use of ethnographic techniques with emphasis on both TJ leaders and grassroots members of the movement, voice has been heard of people who may not have had a chance to access research settings, which will allow for an extra layer of analysis and interpretation.

Over 150 hours of observation of proceedings at the TJ’s West Ham mosque in London were made, including the Thursday evening gatherings. A visit was made to TJ’s Christian Street mosque in London, and two visits were made to TJ’s European headquarter mosque in Dewsbury. Over 200 hours were spent on conversations with Tablighis “hanging out” at Muslim-owned cafes, stores, and bookshops. This allowed for more relaxed conversations and exchanges.² Semistructured interviews were held with adherents of the London movement, and this included two senior members. Interviews with senior planning officials involved in negotiating TJ’s construction project allowed for an informed opinion on the movement’s adaptation from governmental and professional perspectives. Further interviews were conducted with those who oppose TJ and who have sought to characterize the movement as steadfast in its isolationism and hence lacking the ability to engage or integrate.

Being a participant in “culture” is important to ethnographic work and implies immersion of one’s self into the routines and everyday rhythms of the community one is observing—for example, building interactions with the people who can show and tell the researcher what is going on in a given setting, and who can help assign meaning to actions (Wax 1983). In recent sociological and ethnographic studies, this has been termed “deep hanging out” (Wogan 2004). Although the term “hanging out” can conjure images of a technique lacking in methodological rigor, it is one of the most effective ways of conducting sensitive research. “Hanging out” with the ones a researcher intends to study allows for a profound understanding of how people really function within a given context. In Gang Leader for a Day, Venkatesh makes the following comment—a comment that a participant made on his ethnographic methodology:

You shouldn’t go around asking them silly questions . . . With people like us, you should hang out, get to know what they do, how they do it. No one is going to answer questions like that. You need to understand how young people live on the streets. (2008: 21)

“Hanging out” was invaluable when examining the adaption of TJ’s strategies and moves toward greater sociopolitical engagement and how the movement is organized. Tablighis were more likely to discuss such matters in more social and relaxed contexts as opposed to being asked structured questions in a formal interview process.

Elements of risk and security were important considerations of the research design and implementation. The safety of participants who (hesitatingly) took part in what can be a sensitive research area was considered. Anonymity was granted to all participants so as to “mitigate risks of harm,” except in instances where their role was a matter of public record and their consent was forthcoming (Lambert 2010: 75). Research into a topical subject area such as this has implications, given the interest in such research from media and government. Efforts were made to ensure that research was carried out ethically, accurately, and honestly.

The book is organized in four parts. The first serves to provide a theoretical and conceptual understanding of the key themes and issues around TJ’s mosque project. Chapter 2, which follows this introduction, identifies TJ as an illiberal, nonengaging, and theocratic movement that for wanting to gain permission to construct a large mosque is trying to adapt its strategies to resonate with the norms of liberal democracies. The chapter focuses on questions emerging at the forefront of debates across liberal democracies, including the role of Islam in the West, citizenship, national identity, and how best to integrate increasingly diverse populations into the nation state. The chapter explores what happens to illiberal and politically disengaged groups wanting to segregate themselves from what they regard as corrupt and immoral wider societies. This becomes especially important when such groups want to advance major projects in those societies and are judged by the standards set by political elites.

The second part of the book consists of two chapters outlining the historical and organizational development of TJ. The first (chapter 3) places TJ in its historical context, outlining its philosophical and ideological trajectories stemming from the sociopolitical writings of Shah Walliuallah, which stress the importance of Islamic revival as a means of moral correction, to the emergence of the Deobandi school of Islam in India. The Deobandi emphasis was on the centrality of the Shari’a acting as a symbolic marker of identity. If Muslims applied the Shari’a to their lives, dressed as Muslims, and abandoned local customary practices, a strong and separate communal identity would emerge. This would ensure that Muslims were not swallowed into the Hindu fold or corrupted by the Western influences of British colonialism. It is here that the ideas to revive a pristine form of Islam, unsullied by customary practices, as a means to reempower Islam as a force in the modern world will be discussed. Chapter 4 examines TJ as a practical organization—its leadership, hierarchies, and organizational structure. The chapter looks at those who join TJ and asks what has attracted them to the movement. It also outlines TJ’s missionary activities and the central place these have in the lives of TJ activists.

These two chapters together offer the theoretical, historical, and practical knowledge necessary to understand the argumentation and crucial concepts around TJ as a modern Islamic movement. This is a movement that is becoming increasingly adept at negotiating shifting sociopolitical contexts. The ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1  Introduction
• Part I   Theoretical and Analytical Framework: Understanding the Context
• Part II   Conceptualizing Tablighi Jamaat
• Part III   The Quest for the London Mega Mosque
• Part IV   The Worldly Unworldliness of Tablighi Jamaat
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index