Ideas
Academics, Public Intellectuals Want Maududi's Jihadi Texts Banned In Islamic Universities
- In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, academics and public intellectuals have highlighted a scandal of the highest order that the Indian state is giving political and moral legitimacy to such a hate-soaked ideology, by allowing it to be part of academic curriculum in state-funded universities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with AMU in the backdrop.
27th July, 2022
Shri Narendra Modi Ji,
Hon. Prime Minister of India,
7 Lok Kalyan Marg,
New Delhi - 110001
Mananiye Pradhan Mantri Ji,
Sadar Naman,
We the undersigned wish to bring to your notice the brazenly Jihadi Islamic course curriculum being followed by certain departments of state-funded Islamic universities such as Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Hamdard University.
The never-ending violent attacks on Hindu society, culture and civilisation are a direct outcome of such teachings. It is a matter of deep concern that leading Islamic universities are providing a cover of legitimacy and respectability to such ideologies, especially since some prominent Muslim leaders of India have openly declared their determination to Islamise all of post-Partition India by 2047. Since these universities are being supported by public money, we as taxpayers and concerned citizens have a right to demand action against such teachings.
The accompanying Note explains in detail, with proper references, the reasons for submitting this appeal to you.
Given the national security implications of this issue, this matter deserves your personal attention and follow up.
Warm Regards
(Signatories in alphabetical order)
1. Prof. Anand Kumar, National Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla
2. Dr. Anil Kumar Vajpayee, Central Government College, Daman & Diu (Retd.)
3. Dr. Bhakti Devi, Rashtram School of Public Leadership, Rishihood University, Haryana
4. Prof. Bharat Gupt, University of Delhi (Retd.)
5. Dr. Gautam Sen, London School of Economics (Retd.)
6. Prof. Hari Om Mahajan, Former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Jammu University
7. Prof. Kanchi Gopinath, Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bangalore
8. Prof. Lakshmi Bandlamudi, LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York
9. Prof. Madhu Kishwar, Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML)
10. Dr. Mala Kapadia, Rashtram School of Public Leadership, Rishihood University, Haryana
11. Shri Neeraj Atri, Chairman, National Center for Historical Research and Comparative Studies
12. Dr. Nidhi Shendurnikar, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
13. Prof P Kanagasabapathi, Former Director, Tamil Nadu Institute of Urban Studies
14. Prof. Prashant Singh, Rashtram University
15. Dr. Prem Parkash Khosla, M.M.D. University, Haryana
16. Shri Sahil Aggarwal, CEO, Rishihood University, Haryana
17. Prof. Sangit Kumar Ragi, Dept. of Political Science, University of Delhi
18. Dr. Satish Malhotra, Retd. Prof., G.G.S. Medical College, Punjab
19. Dr. Saumya Dey, Rashtram School of Public Leadership, Rishihood University, Haryana
20. Dr. Shilpi Tiwari, VIMHANS, Delhi
21. Prof. Uma Iyer, Bronx Community College, City University of New York
22. Prof. Ved Prakash Kumar, Chaudhary Bansi Lal University, Haryana
Note on Islamic Curriculum in State-Funded Universities
Indoctrination of students at state-funded institutions like the Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Jamia Hamdard through an anti-Indic/anti-national course curriculum
We wish to bring to your notice that Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Jamia Hamdard have adopted, effectively, an anti-Indic/anti-national course curriculum as part of the undergraduate and post-graduate study programmes in their Departments of Islamic Studies. All these three institutions are trail-blazers and role models for Islamic educational institutions all over India. Therefore, the direction they take lays down the ground rules in Islamic educational institutions all over India as well as Muslim politics in our country.
Given the above context, it is a matter of deep concern and worry that the writings of Abul Ala Maududi, widely recognised as the authoritative fountainhead of Islam, is part of the course curriculum of the above mentioned three Islamic universities. Maududi openly calls for genocide of non-Muslims everywhere in the world. The Indian sub-continent has been the worst victim of this brand of ongoing extremist ideology. And yet these three institutions have not only included his writings in their undergraduate and post-graduate courses but are also encouraging their students to do PhDs on his thoughts, writings and influence.
Maududi was not just an arm-chair theorist. His political influence as an Islamic theologian within India can be gauged from the fact that he was the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami-e-Hind (JIH), an organisation committed to total Islamisation of India, which has genocidal implications for non-Muslims of India. JIH is headquartered in Delhi and is flourishing right under the nose of the home ministry. The hydra-headed ideology of Maududi has created many offshoots such as the Indian Mujahideen, Wilayah of Hind (Islamic State’s India province), the JKLF, the Hurriyat, the Raza Academy, the Popular Front of India, etc. JIH also founded the Simi. All these have had to be either banned at different points (of time) or are currently under the NIA scanner on extremely serious charges.
The influence of Maududi can be gauged from the fact that the Wahabi brand of Islam authored by Maududi first swept the Middle East and the Gulf countries in the 20th century and is now spreading also in the western democracies. Internationally-designated terrorist organisations like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood, Taliban, etc, continue to drive their inspiration from Maududi’s core ideology and framework of political Islam.
This ideology played a significant role in fanning the fires of Muslim separatism during the days of the freedom struggle. Like Maulana Azad, Maududi opposed the Partition of India in 1947 not for any love of Hindustan and the benign, all-inclusive civilisation of Bharat but because he was committed to Mission Ghazwa-E-Hind which is determined to make all of Hindustan part of the global Islamic Ummah by total cleansing of non-Muslims and their culture in the entire sub-continent.
As is well known, Islam does not believe in the sanctity of territorial nation-states nor civilisational states like Hindustan but asserts that all true Muslims are duty bound to bring the entire planet under their umbrella of Islam. However, despite opposing the Partition, the Aurangabad-born Maududi shifted to Pakistan once that Islamic state became a reality.
The roots of Islamisation of Pakistan, where Muslims don’t even tolerate fellow Muslims, are traced by many to the Islamisation drive undertaken by Maududi soon after Pakistan’s birth. Maududi opposed the secular pretensions of Jinnah, who occasionally paid lip service (practicing Taquiyya) to democracy and secularism in his speeches so that he could appear as a “modern and progressive leader”. But Maudidi’s Islam does not believe in making even token concessions to democracy, leave alone secularism. That is why Jinnah was rapidly side-lined soon after his dream of an Islamic State became a reality.
It was under the influence of Maududi’s Wahabi/Sunni Islam that all other sects of Islam came to be targeted in Pakistan with a vengeance. Pogroms and targeted killings against Shias, Ahmadiyyas and other smaller sects have been a routine affair, so much so that Muslims of India and their Leftist allies are today demanding that these persecuted sects of Islam should have been included in the list of CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) beneficiaries.
An important testimony about the key role of Maududi in legitimising genocidal violence against non-Muslims comes from Navras J. Aafreedi, Department of History, Presidency University, Kolkata. In an academic paper entitled, ‘Anti-semitism in the Muslim Intellectual Discourse in South Asia’, Aafreedi wrote:
“Nobody before him (Maududi) had ever held armed struggle as central to jihad, and unlike any major Muslim thinker before him, he was the first to call for a universal jihad.” (1)
Prof. Kevin McDonald, Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Criminology and Sociology, Middlesex University, has documented how even (the now dead) ISIS chief, Al Baghdadi acknowledged the inspiration he received from Maududi:
“When he made his speech in July at Mosul’s Great Mosque, declaring the creation of an Islamic State with himself as its Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi quoted at length from the Indian/Pakistani thinker, Abul A’la Maududi, the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami party in 1941 and originator of the contemporary term “Islamic State”. (2)
A revealing extract from a report commissioned by the UK House of Commons, entitled, ‘Muslim Brotherhood Review: Main Findings’ confirms the widespread influence of Maududi’s lethal ideology:
“… key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, drew on the thought of the Indo-Pakistani theorist, Abul Ala’a Mawdudi, the founder of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, to promote the doctrine of takfirism. This has consistently been understood as a doctrine permitting the stigmatisation of other Muslims as infidel or apostate, and of existing states as unIslamic, and the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society.” (3)
According to senior Indian journalist Praveen Swami:
“In one essay, al-Zawahiri (current Al Qaeda chief) approvingly cited Maududi to argue that “democracy was a new religion, based on making the people into gods, and giving them God’s attributes.” “This is tantamount to associating idols with God and falling into unbelief,” he asserted.” (4)
Pakistanis openly acknowledge Maududi’s role in mentoring Zia-Ul-Haq’s pernicious Islamisation drive. According to Pakistani journalist Nadeem F. Paracha:
“Maududi's ideas were eventually adopted by General Zia-ul-Haq, who had pulled off a successful military coup in July 1977 and then invited Maududi to help him shape policies to help make Pakistan a 'true Islamic country' run on 'Nizam-e-Mustafa.' (5)
Now let’s hear Maududi’s open declaration of war against non-Muslims of the planet in his own words. In an address entitled “Jihad in Islam" that Maududi delivered on Iqbal Day, 13 April, 1939, at the Town Hall, Lahore, he declared:
"Islam wishes to destroy all states & governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology & programme of Islam.… Islam requires the earth - not just a portion, but the whole planet." (6)
In his book, “The Road to Peace and Salvation’, Abul Ala Maududi, issued an open threat to all those who live under democratic systems:
“None of His [God’s] subjects has the right to arrogate to himself the position of a sovereign rule. Nor is any individual or legislative body competent to make laws according to their own whims and caprices and call upon the subjects of God to follow that law instead of the Law of God. Nor does any government have the right to enforce its own authority in disregard of the Divine Authority and require people to obey its own command irrespective of the Divine injunctions…. All these are acts of rebellion: false claims to sovereignty and recognition of these claims both amount to manifest rebellion and those who are guilty of either of these offences are bound to be punished sooner or later.” (7)
This explains why Islamists are not going to adopt the BJP’s proposed Uniform Civil Code because their mazhab does not permit them to accept the laws made by non-Islamic secular governments. The Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Habiatullah Akhundzada hammered this reasoning in his recent speech:
After Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi declared the formation of an Islamic State (ISIS), an editorial on 26 August 2014 in New Age Islam, a popular website on Islamic affairs, shed light on the harsh reality of Maududi’s political Islam:
"Supporting the ISIS Caliphate is binding on all Muslims, says Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in the various editorials appearing in its mouthpiece, the Dawat. It asks Indian Muslims to support and glorify ISIS and Boko Haram. In its view, ISIS fulfils Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Abul Ala Maududi's aspirations for the Islamic caliphate." (9)
The government of India needs to listen to the belief system and mandates of Islam in the words of prominent Muslim leaders instead of coming up with naive goodwill gestures towards the Muslim community which have continually boomeranged on politicians who try to goad Muslims towards secular reform.
Given this spine-chilling belief system which glorifies the total annihilation of non-Muslims who refuse to embrace Islam, it is both shocking and disgraceful that books by Aurangzeb-minded Maududi are currently part of the curriculum and are being taught at the Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Jamia Hamdard, just to name the three leading Muslim universities.
1. As per the website of the Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University:
● BA Islamic Studies Syllabus: Maududi is part of the curriculum and one book on/by Maududi is recommended. (10)
● MA Islamic Studies Syllabus: Maududi is part of the curriculum and eight books on/by Maududi are recommended. (11)
● M.Phil/Ph.D: Maududi is part of the Syllabus for Admission Test. (12)
2. As per the website of the Department of Islamic Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia:
● BA (H) Islamic studies Sem-I-VI: Maududi is part of the curriculum. (13)
● BA Subsidiary Sem-I-VI: Maududi is part of the curriculum. (14)
● BA Islamic studies, Islamiat & Indian Religions and Culture: Two books on/by Maududi are recommended. (15)
● BA (Hons.) Islamic Studies (I, II, III, IV, V & VI Semester): Maududi is part of the curriculum and two books on/by Maududi are recommended. (16)
● BA (Subsidiary) Islamic Studies (I, II, III & IV Semester): Maududi is part of the curriculum. (17)
● Syllabus for the Compulsory Papers of Islamiat and Indian Religions and Culture for I & II Semesters in Undergraduate Courses of the Faculties of Humanities and Languages, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences: One book on/by Maududi is recommended. (18)
● MA (I, II, III & IV Semester) Syllabus: Maududi is part of the curriculum and one book on/by Maududi is recommended. (19)
● MA CBCE (Semester 1-IV) Syllabus: Maududi is part of the curriculum. (20)
3. As per the website of the Department of Islamic Studies, Jamia Hamdard: PhD is being offered on Maududi’s life works. (21)
Mananiye Pradhan Mantri Ji,
We do not claim to be scholars of Islam but, today, those targeted as Kafirs by Islamists find it necessary to get themselves familiarised with this violent ideology that has caused endless series of Hindu holocausts in the sub-continent. It wasn’t just the foreign Islamic invaders who committed unspeakable brutalities in order to force non-Muslims to convert, (and) broke and vandalised lakhs of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist places of worship, but also converted them into mosques and tombs, smashed the murtis of our sacred Devi-Devtas, abducted lakhs of Hindu women and children to sell them as sex slaves. Tragically, the process has continued unabated even in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Even the bloody Partition of India to carve out an Islamic haven called Pakistan has not put a halt to their determination to wipe out or forcibly convert all Kafirs on earth.
To quote from well-known American historian Will Durant’s book, The Story of Civilization I: Our Oriental Heritage:
“The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilisation is a precious good, whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within” (22)
In an interview to Outlook Magazine on November 15, 1999, Nobel laureate Sir V S Naipaul expressed his anguish at the manner in which the atrocities and crimes suffered by Hindus at the hands of Islamic invaders are being covered with glamorous gloss by modern day power wielders:
“In art books and history books, people write of the Muslims "arriving" in India, as though the Muslims came on a tourist bus and went away again. The Muslim view of their conquest of India is a truer one. They speak of the triumph of the faith, the destruction of idols and temples, the loot, the carting away of the local people as slaves, so cheap and numerous that they were being sold for a few rupees.” (23)
Starting with the 8th century invasion of Sindh, millions of non-Muslims (Kafirs) have been slaughtered by Islamists in their bloody unprovoked assault on Hindu civilisation. It is outrageous that the slaughters and ethnic cleansing of Hindus, Sikhs, Bauddhas and others continue even after the break-up of the sub-continent in 1947 with millions killed, countless women abducted and turned into sex slaves by Islamists and many millions uprooted from their ancestral lands and forced to seek shelter as penniless refugees in the truncated and dismembered India. The near total ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Kashmir, the continuing demographic invasion in the Jammu province, rapid Islamisation of all border states of India, including Punjab, Bengal, Assam, Kerala, the decimation of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh and now cleansing of Hindus in countless regions of India that have turned into Muslim majority, clearly indicate that Hindus are an endangered community, thanks to the spread and deepening hold of Maududi’s virulent ideology.
It is a scandal of the highest order that the Indian state is giving political and moral legitimacy to such a hate-soaked ideology, by allowing it to be part of academic curriculum in state-funded universities. In other words, Indian taxpayer money is being used for preparing Jihadis to wage war against non-Muslims (Kafirs) in India. That such fears are not the product of our wild imagination is evident from the recently exposed Agenda 2047 of the Popular Front of India (PFI) whereby, this umbrella organisation of sundry Jihadi outfits inspired by Maududi’s ideology, has openly stated that they are mazhab-bound to ensure total Islamisation of the remaining part of India through means that include waging war against the Indian state and decimating Kafirs who still hold on to their faith.
The patronage and protection being offered to this ideology by the Indian state has emboldened Islamist outfits to openly behead, lynch and rape Hindus in order to terrorise an entire population, attack and vandalise temples, (and) obstruct the celebration of Hindu festivals in areas where Muslims have acquired numerical advantage. Just as Hindus had to flee from areas that became Pakistan, today Hindus of India are forced to abandon their homes and mohallas where Islamists have come to hold sway. The well-planned demographic invasion of India through millions of illegal migrants from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Afghanistan and even Pakistan is being executed in defiance of the Indian state under the influence of the Islamic agenda of Ghazwa-E-Hind. Its openly declared aim is to destroy the remaining vestiges of Indic civilisation and decimate the remaining share of native population in their own homeland through Demographic Invasion and a series of civil wars.
The gross ignorance of the Indian state and Hindu society in India about the real nature and agenda of Islam makes us extremely vulnerable and easy targets of ethnic cleansing. For instance, most of Maududi’s writings as well as other Islamist theologians and political theorists being used in these universities, is written originally in traditional Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and Persian. But it would be hard to find a non-Muslim within the government or academia who is proficient in these languages. Therefore, not just ordinary citizens but even the government of India and its security apparatus seem unaware of the imminent existential threat India faces at the hands of this virulent political ideology.
We would like to underscore the point that the few examples we have provided you regarding the noxious ideas being injected into the minds of Muslim youth through the writings of Maudadi are a mere tip of the iceberg.
Political Islam is an ideology that has birthed countless jihadi organisations (tanzeems) which have been waging an open war against India’s democratic system and all those who have survived conversions to Islam thus far. Therefore, we demand that:
● The entrenchment of such ideologies in state-funded universities needs to be stopped on a war footing since it has deep national security implications and pertains to the impending bloodbaths being openly threatened by outfits inspired by Maududi;
● A comprehensive academic review of the course curriculum of Islamic universities, colleges, schools and madrassas be undertaken by the best available experts who are not themselves trapped in the stranglehold of such ideologies. Special effort must be made to review their courses and reading essential lists given to students in Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Turkish;
● There should be a total ban against the publication or circulation of books by Abul Ala Maududi and other ideologues of Islam that openly call for Jihad against non-Muslims and instigate mass murders and/or forced conversions to Islam in order to bring about total Islamisation of India.
References
8. https://web.archive.org/web/20220701131348/https://twitter.com/abdsayedd/status/1542858636652855301
12. https://web.archive.org/web/20220216181512/https://api.amu.ac.in/storage/file/course/syll/10774.pdf
16. https://web.archive.org/web/20220302113403/https://www.jmi.ac.in/upload/programme/cs_fhl_is_bah.pdf
19. https://web.archive.org/web/20220303012400/https://www.jmi.ac.in/upload/programme/cs_fhl_is_ma.pdf
