Historical Roots of the Deobandi Version of Jihadism and Its Implications for Violence in Today’s Pakistan

Abstract

In “Historical Roots of the Deobandi Version of Jihadism and Its Implications for Violence in Today’s Pakistan”, Arshi Saleem Hashmi argues that the Deobandi movement seems to have multiple objectives. The Deobandi ulema (clerics) moved closer to politics and created the JUH in 1919. However, even before that, in 1914, Maulana Mahmudul Hassan, chancellor at Darul Uloom Deoband, conceived a movement for the liberation of India by which armed units would be deputed to organize the Pakhtuns of the tribal areas and rally support in Afghanistan to provide a convenient point for the Turkish army to open up a new front against the British. The movement was rooted in the politics of pan-Islamism, but its founders highlighted the differences in their militaristic outlook and criticized the politics of the non-violent movement, which dominated the nationalist Indian arena at that time. Hashmi notes that one of the important and dominant pillars of the Deobandi school of thought is a sacred right and obligation to go to any lengths to wage jihad so as to protect Muslims anywhere in the world. She argues that after the creation of Pakistan, religiously motivated violent Deobandi groups openly declared and claimed militancy, and they established a reign of terror in the country against various sects within Islam and people of other faiths.