On August 23, 2022, academic Madhu Kishwar wrote an open letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to warn him about the direct/indirect links between radical Islamic organisations such as Darul Uloom Deoband, Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and the most lethal global terrorist organisations.
Friends,
— Madhu Purnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) August 23, 2022
Sharing my Open Letter to @myogiadityanath ji, regarding direct/indirect Terror Links of Deoband, Nadwa & AIMPLB.
Evidence provided demands swift investigation & action.https://t.co/gxCehrTvhi
Pls read, share and support. Thank you@PMOIndia @HMOIndia @NIA_India
Attaching documentary evidence against the Islamic organisations and their purported link with terror outfits like Al-Qaeda, ISIS and other jihadi terror groups based in Pakistan for referral, academic Madhu Kishwar urged Yogi to take strict action against these anti-social elements and enemies of India.
“We are bringing into the public domain some alarming facts about the intimate links of Darul Uloom, Deoband and Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow with the most lethal global terrorist organizations, in addition to their leading role in mentoring the openly genocidal tanzeem called Taliban. This brief note builds a strong case for a thorough investigation into the functioning and role of Deoband and Nadwa in promoting jihadi terror within India as well as globally. And if the charges we are levelling are proven correct, then Darul Uloom, Deoband and Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow deserve to be shut down and the publications as well as the literature produced by these sinister organisations ought to be banned,” read the letter Kishwar wrote to CM Yogi Adityanath.
Madhu Kishwar also provided a note that detailed the links of these Islamic outfits with dreaded terrorist organisations to attest to her claims. The note attached first spoke about the Islamic organisation Darul Uloom Deoband and its purported role in promoting jihad.
Beginning with a brief history of the Islamic seminary in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, the note attached for Yogi Adityanath’s perusal went on to detail Darul Uloom Deoband’s proximity to the Taliban.
The proximity of Darul Uloom Deoband to the Taliban
According to the note, researchers from the Kabul Centre and the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), Deoband have alleged that Darul Uloom Deoband is the Taliban’s ideological fountainhead, mentoring many virulent jihadis.
“Darul Uloom Deoband (is the) The Indian Ideological Source of the Taliban. The Taliban learned their interpretation of Islam while studying at Deobandi seminaries in Pakistan. Mullah Omar, for example, the leader of the Taliban, attended the Deobandi Darul Uloom Haqqania madrasa in Akora Khattak, in Peshawar, Pakistan. So many Taliban leaders were educated at this same school that its head cleric, Maulana Sami ul-Haq, has been called the father of the Taliban“, read the note attached to the letter addressed to Yogi Adityanath.
The note further elaborated on how the Darul Uloom Deoband had in March 2001, extended its unwavering support for the Talibanis when the latter went on to destroy the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamyan. It added how the Islamic seminary’s principal Arshad Madani had also glorified the Taliban after they came to power in August 2021.
Further explaining how Deoband is the lead agency for global jihad, the note read, “From Peshawar to Chittagong, the Deobandi madrasa movement has spread its evil tentacles all over the Indian subcontinent and beyond. They are one of the leading players in preparing Muslims around the world for violence against non-Muslims as part of global jihad. Over the past few decades, there have been hundreds of reports about Deoband being a fertile ground for honing youngsters to unleash barbaric forms of Islamic terrorism. There are plentiful examples of how Deoband has been exporting terrorist ideologies and tanzeems.”
The activist, in her letter further mentioned how Sana-ul-Haq, better known as Maulana Asim Umar, the head of Al-Qaeda’s South Asia branch was a Deoband product.
‘Deoband is a regular Refuge for Terrorists on the Run‘, writes academician Madhu Kishwar
Quoting an excerpt from a 2017 Times of India report that read, “The revelation has been drawn from interrogation report prepared by anti-terrorist squad of UP Police, which arrested in the past 10 weeks four illegal Bangladeshi immigrants linked to Bangladesh-based terror modules. All four had taken refuge in Saharanpur and were staying in Deoband, the Islamic seat of learning which attracts Muslim scholars from different countries,” Madhu Kishwar further added how there have been countless instances of jihadis seeking refuge in Deoband after committing terrorist attacks.
Further expressing her concern about how the “Commie-Islamist Combine distorted our history and misled the people of India by painting Deobandis in the colours of nationalism”, Kishwar stated that Darul Uloom Deoband’s ideological bent can be gauged by the fact that it has never issued a fatwa against suicide bombings nor has it ever accepted the sanctity of international borders between countries.
“Well-known terrorist organizations targeting India from our neighboring countries are using precisely this principle of pan-Islamic/global Ummah to “bleed India to death through a 1000 cuts.” Ironically, terrorist tanzeems inspired by Deoband are not happy even with Pakistan on account of its pretense to be a nation state, albeit an Islamic one. This despite the fact that in effect Pakistan is only a launchpad for terrorist acts and spread of jihadi Islam,” the note read.
It added, “International media provide regular reports of daily clashes between the Afghan Taliban and Pakistani border forces along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border / Durand Line. According to experienced analysts, this is because the Afghan Taliban and their cross-border affiliate the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) envision Afghanistan and Pakistan as one land mass governed by Nizam-E-Mustafa (puritan Islamic Law) and are deadly against Pakistan’s aspiration to be counted as a modern day nation state with pretentious trappings of democracy.”
International Terrorist Organizations’ Links and Support for Deoband and Nadwa
The activist also attempted to draw Yogi’s attention to the link between international terrorist organisations and Darul Uloom, Deoband and Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, as well as the support the former provides to the latter.
“Yogi Adityanath Ji, you have already taken unprecedented measures to keep an eye on Deoband by positioning security forces near this Islamic seminary. You would not have needed to do that if Deoband was just a scholastic institution. However, it is equally important to connect the dots from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to Uttar Pradesh,” the letter read.
Global terror outfit Al-Qaeda funded by Muslim World League: Madhu Kishwar
Madhu Kishwar here goes on to present facts to establish the link between the Muslim World League, a so-called international non-governmental Islamic organization based in the Holy City of Makkah, Saudi Arabia run by members of the Saudi Royal family and the slain global terrorist Osama Bin Laden.
Citing Matthew Epstein and Evan Kohlmann’s testimony before the House Committee on Financial Services’ Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations: Progress Since 9/11: The Effectiveness of the United States’ Counter-Terrorist Financing Effort, Kishwar stated that in conversations with former senior Al-Qaida lieutenant Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl in 1993, Usama Bin Laden identified three Muslim charities as the primary sources of Al-Qaida financial and fundraising activities: Muslim World League (MWL), Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), and Qatar Charitable Society (QCS).
“These three organizations served a critical role in the Arab-Afghan terrorist infrastructure by laundering money originating from bank accounts belonging to Bin Laden and his sympathetic patrons in the Arabian Gulf, providing employment and travel documents to Al- Qaida personnel worldwide, and helping “to move funds to areas where Al-Qaeda was carrying out operations,” read the letter.
Kishwar further went on to uncover the link between Maulana Arshad Madani, the current Principal of Darul Uloom Deoband and the Muslim World League.
The letter read how Maulana Arshad Madani, Principal of Darul Uloom Deoband, President of Jamiat Ulama I Hind, and Vice-President of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, boasted on his official website about being named a member of the Muslim World League in 2012 when he was Professor of Hadith at Darul Uloom Deoband. At the time, the Muslim World League was designated as a “Terrorist Organization.” On June 6, 2012, a Deobandi website reported Maulana Arshad Madani’s appointment as a member of the Muslim World League.
“Thus, for over four years, Principal of Darul Uloom Deoband and President of Jamiat Ulama I Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani was a member of the Muslim World League, even though it was an internationally designated ‘Terrorist Organization’.
The Muslim World League is run under the patronage of the Saudi Royal family. In 2014, Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Affairs Minister Saleh Al-Asheikh openly visited Darul Uloom Deoband and pledged to work closely with Darul Uloom Deoband during a ceremony organized in the minister’s honor by Deoband students and faculty members,” the letter read.
Nadwatul Ulama’s connection with Muslim World League and ISIS
After establishing how the global terror outfit Al-Qaeda was funded by Muslim World League, Madhu Kishwar, in her letter to the Uttar Pradesh CM further elucidated the link between Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow with the Muslim World Link and ISIS.
“Deobandi website had also carried the news about Maulana Muhammad Rabey Nadwi, President of Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow and Chairman of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) having been appointed a member of the Muslim World League before 2012 (when it was an internationally designated ‘Terrorist Organization’).
Maulana Salman Hussaini Nadwi, nephew of Maulana Muhammad Rabey Nadwi and then Dean of Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow had also written a letter congratulating ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi lauding him as a Caliph of Muslims after he made his speech in July 2014 at Mosul’s Great Mosque, declaring the creation of an Islamic State with himself as its Caliph,” she wrote.
Kishwar further talked about the sordid history of the notorious Deoband-based radical Islamic organisation Jamiat Ulema-e Hind and its connections with Al-Qaeda.
Notably, in June last year, the Deoband-based organisation had also deputed its lawyers to defend alleged Al-Qaeda terrorists in Uttar Pradesh. The organisation had declared that it would provide legal assistance to the two terror suspects.
Meanwhile, to prove her point, Kishwar cited the incident wherein during the violent protests against the hijab ban in colleges in Karnataka, the radical Islamic outfit Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind stoked a controversy by announcing a reward to a Burqa-wearing protestor, Bibi Muskan Khan, who shouted provocative “Allahu Akbar” slogans against a group of Hindu students.
By citing the aforementioned incident as an example, Kishwar said that in addition to its long-standing involvement in global terrorist organisations, Deoband never misses an opportunity to incite Muslims to defy India’s sovereignty and laws on flimsy grounds, whether it’s engineered protests against the CAA, farm laws, or school uniforms.
Kishwar further threw light on the financial connection of Principal of Darul Uloom Deoband and President of Jamiat Ulama I Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani with Pakistan-based terrorist organisation by sharing the FCRA record of his radical Islamic outfit Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.
She alleged that Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind and Sheikhul Hind Educational Charitable Trust have been receiving crores of rupees from foreign sources. “As per the FCRA records, Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind UK Limited has been donating regularly to Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind and is also operating in Pakistan as per the records of the Charity Commission for England and Wales,” the letter further stated.
“It needs to be expeditiously investigated whether the activities and support of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and uncle-nephew duo Maulana Arshad Madani and Maulana Mehmood Madani are linked to wanted terrorists and terrorist organizations based in Pakistan,” the letter added.
“How can a country like India allow a hydra headed monsters like Darul Uloom Deoband and Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Luckow to flourish on the soil of democratic India even though these organizations endorse the use of barbaric forms of violence to achieve their goals and have direct and indirect links with designated terrorist organizations in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the rest of the Islamic world. Firstly, these organizations engineered a bloody Partition of India in 1947. Instead of banning them after the genocidal Partition, the Indian state allowed these Break-Up India Mafia to set up countless mini-Pakistans on the soil of democratic and secular India.
The result is that Islamic outfits are openly declaring that they have plans to turn all of India into Dar-al-Islam (land where Islam rules) by 2047. We cannot remain a mute witness to this dangerous game being played at break-neck speed. Therefore, we request you to initiate an urgent inquiry into the activities of Darul Uloom Deoband and Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Luckow and shut down these sinister institutions immediately in the interest of the security of Uttar Pradesh as well as India,” Madhu Kishwar concluded her letter by urging Yogi Aditynath to take immediate and decisive action against radical Islamic outfits that she claimed posed direct threats to India’s sovereignty.
Notably, prior to this, on July 27, academic Madhu Kishwar along with over 20 academicians wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring to his notice the ‘Jihadi Islamic course curriculum’ being followed by state-funded Islamic universities, including Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Hamdard University.
In the letter, the academicians said that the continuous attacks on the Hindu society, culture and civilization are a direct result of such a curriculum. They had included a detailed note on how anti-Indic and anti-national curriculum is openly taught to the students in Islamic universities.
