'The Islamic Connection' captures Salafi influence in South Asia and Gulf

Book review of 'The Islamic Connection: South Asia and the Gulf'

Though Islam originated in Arabia, India’s principal cultural links were with Persia, so that South Asia shaped an “eclectic Indo-Persianate world” whose civilisation was largely autonomous from Arab influence and that of the later Ottoman Empire. In fact, under Sufi influence, India became an “Islamic sacred land”, with its own rich contributions to Islamic doctrine and practice and its own pilgrimage centres, a development in which the Hindu community also participated spiritually.

This book contains articles by several distinguished academics who discuss the significant changes that have occurred in Islamic discourse in South Asia, mainly in Pakistan and Afghanistan, in recent years, under the influence of Salafi Islam from the Gulf Arab monarchies, led by Saudi Arabia. 

In its initial years, Pakistan saw its heritage and destiny as quite separate from that of West Asia, with some of its leaders even viewing it as an Islamic utopia that would lead to the renewal of the Muslim world in modern times. This changed when mutual security interests brought Pakistan and the Gulf monarchies close to each other. This included the stationing of several thousand Pakistani personnel in some Gulf countries and large-scale financial assistance to Pakistan, including perhaps the funding of its nuclear weapons programme.

The jihad in Afghanistan from 1979 sealed this partnership, which witnessed close military, intelligence and doctrinal cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan under President Zia-ul-Haq. Saudi influence led to the “Wahhabisation” of Pakistani Islam that included: deepening of sectarianism, the “Sunnisation” of education, and the emergence and consolidation of radical groups that have become powerful forces in domestic and regional politics.

The first major impact of this nexus was in the proliferation of madrassas in Pakistan: Ayesha Siddiqa writes that they went from 244 in 1950 to 671 in 1960, and then to 14,000 in 2005; they could now number around 30,000, with another 10,000-15,000 unregistered ones. They are, she notes, the power base of religious groups, including those associated with militancy — Deoband, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Ahl-e-Hadith, all of which have close doctrinal ties with Wahhabi entities in Saudi Arabia. This has shaped the nexus between “madrassa, militancy and army” in Pakistan.

Gulf funding from state coffers and private charities has been central to the expansion and influence of these bedrocks of radical Islam in Pakistan. It has benefitted radical outfits such as: the Markaz Daawa wal Irshad, headed by Hafiz Saeed, its subordinate militant group; Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, set up in 1990, for jihad in India, and the successor, from 2001, Jamaat ul Daawa; the fiercely anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi; the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Haqqani network. As Samina Yasmeen points out, jihad has a special place in the narrative of these bodies, with primacy accorded to India and Afghanistan.

The book has two excellent articles of deep interest to India: one, on the Haqqani network by Don Rassler, and the other on Saudi links with the Taliban after 9/11 by Antonio Guistozzi. 

Rassler provides some interesting insights into the rise of Jalaluddin Haqqani and how his activities were facilitated by his own shrewdness and his relations with the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Haqqani is said to have had strong ties with members of the Saudi royal family and perhaps even held a Saudi passport. 

The Islamic Connection: South Asia and the Gulf; Author: Christophe Jaffrelot and Laurence Louer (Eds); Publisher: Penguin; Pages: 304; Price: Rs 699

During the Afghan jihad, his advice led to a deeper involvement of Arab-Afghan leaders in the conflict, including the setting up of the Maktab al-Khidamaat (Services Centre), that coordinated the distribution of weaponry, support equipment and funding for the jihad. Rassler notes that the ties of the Haqqani family with the Kingdom continue to be robust, though its leaders have been designated terrorists by the United Nations and the US. 

Giustozzi’s article on the Taliban reveals the close ties of the latter with Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Today, though the outfit is splintered into different groups which have competing approaches to the future of their country, the two Gulf monarchies continue to be deeply involved with the leaders and their policies and seek to manipulate them through funding and, in the case of the kingdom, through the appointment of advisers to supervise and control them.

The author makes the surprising observation that Saudi intelligence are deeply involved with the “Islamic State of Khorasan”, the IS-affiliated entity in Afghanistan. He quotes a Saudi operative as saying: “Daesh [ISIS] is established by us [Saudi government], if there is no support of us with Daesh, then Daesh will finish soon.”

Today, Saudi Arabia is promoting reconciliation between the Taliban and President Ashraf Ghani, an uphill task due to divisions between the hardliners and those favouring engagement.

Giustozzi explains Saudi involvement with Pakistani and Afghan radical groups as being part of its “longstanding policy to extend support all Islamic causes, particularly radical ones”, and over time promote “financial dependency among Islamic fundamentalist and Islamist insurgencies”. It also seeks to ensure that these groups do not turn their rhetoric against the Gulf monarchies. Today, the kingdom is trying to use hardline groups against Iran.

Some minor errors have crept into the text: though Ayman Zawahiri was initially a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, his active jihadi role was with its rival, Gamaa Islamiya. Siddiqa several times refers to King Saud as “Ibn Saud”, the name often used for his father, King Abdulaziz. King Abdulaziz University is not in Riyadh but in Jeddah. Finally, though several writers refer to “Deoband”, they have not distinguished between the original Indian seminary that continues to remain aloof from politics and its breakaway Pakistani entity that plays a major role in Pakistan’s Islamist affairs.

This book has explored new territory that, in some areas, needs more research. Still, the studies provided here are path-breaking and very alarming.
 

The reviewer is a former diplomat