Syed Hurairah
Hyderabad: A wave of apprehension was palpable in cyberspace as well as real life after it came to light that the eight Indonesians who were tested positive for coronavirus are associated with the Tableeghi Jamaat.
COVID patients travelled by train
The eight persons had left Delhi on March 13 on a train and reached Ramagundam the next day. They then proceeded to Karimnagar by road and stayed at a masjid for two days. There was considerable consternation in Karimnagar with several residents expressing their concerns over WhatsApp and other social media platforms.
“There was a lot of panic in places like Mukarrampura in Karimnagar. Police were coordinating with doctors and nurses after which some testing was done,” a local said.
A noted Islamic scholar who did not wish to be named said that he conveyed his apprehensions before the Jamaat’s senior leadership with a request to either tone down or halt jamaat activity which includes travelling to different masjids, staying there and going door to door, inviting Muslims to masjids.
“I have spoken to them twice so far. We will see what happens. They gave me a patient hearing,” he said.
Tableeghi Jamaat
To give a background, the Tableeghi Jamaat was founded nearly a century ago by celebrated Islamic scholar Maulana Mohammed Ilyas. The organisation, has its nerve-centre in Nizamuddin in Delhi which is frequented by several thousand Muslims on each day. Unlike other Muslim prosletysing organisations, the Tableeghi Jamaat is non-political. It is more inward looking, in the sense that it calls Muslims, and not people of other faiths, towards Islam and encourages them to be more observant Muslims by holding on to the basics of Islam.
While it has no card carrying member, the Tableeghi Jamaat does have a central leadership and a structure. However, a split between the leadership was wide open in the past couple of years owing to disagreements in leading the organisation.
Closer home, the Tableeghi Jamaat has its markaz (Centre) in Mallepally in the shape of Jama Masjid Moazzampura. It is from here that a nizam (system) of jamaats leaving and arriving is decided. Jamaats comprising groups of men stay, eat and pray in masjids.