MOHAMMAD JAMIL
THE Japan Times published an article on 14 April 2020 authored by Brahma Chellaney titled “The other contagion: Political and religious fanaticism” in which he brazenly held Chinese Communist Party and Tableeghi Jamaat responsible for outbreak of Coronavirus. He wrote: “Just as fascism led to World War II, communism has engendered the greatest global health catastrophe of our time. The Chinese Communist Party, by initially covering up the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, helped unleash the world’s worst pandemic in more than a century”. He named two fundamental organizations – South Korea’s secretive Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which sparked a major crisis in the country, where it organized a congregation. The other fundamentalist organization he named was the Tableeghi Jamaat, which held gathering of 16,000 activists at the Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur and spread the disease in six Southeast Asian countries — Brunei, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
He also stated: “Tableeghi Jamaat’s March 11-12 congregation in Lahore, Pakistan, attracted up to a quarter million participants but ended up creating the largest viral vector in the Sunni world. It spread the Coronavirus far and wide — from Kyrgyzstan to Gaza”. But his figure of a quarter million participants is highly exaggerated, as spokesperson of Ameer of Tableeghi Jamaat read out a statement on behalf of Amir in a local TV channel and said the total number of participants was 25000. Brahma Chellaney also mentioned gathering of 16000 Tableeghi Jamaat activists in Malaysia, but the incidence of Coronavirus is not alarming at all, as up to 18 April, there have been 5251 cases in Malaysia out of them 2967 recovered and only 86 died of the virus. In Indonesia 607 out of 5923 recovered and 520 died. In India, 1800 recovered out of 13800 whereas 452 died of virus.
On the other hand, novel virus wreaked havoc in the US and the western countries. In the US, Spain, Italy, France and Britain, etc from 14000 to 22000 people have died in each country; and up to 17 April, 35400 people died of Coronavirus in the US. However, Tableeghi Jamaat has not contributed a bit to the alarming death rate in the US and the Western countries. Indian government should have stopped the meeting in Tableeghi Markaz in New Delhi. Similarly, Malaysian or any other government should have persuaded them or stopped them, which they did not do. The author in order to blame Chinese Communist Party and Muslim world grossly exaggerated the figures of Coronavirus cases in India and Malaysia. The author should explain why incidence of Coronavirus cases and large number of deaths occurred in those countries where Tableeghi Jamaat did not hold any meeting?
Yet, he went on to write: “However, no religious group has played a greater role in spreading the Coronavirus across national frontiers than the Tableeghi Jamaat, known for its wandering bands of preachers. The Tableeghi Jamaat shuns the modern world and urges its followers to replicate the life of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and work toward creating a rule of Islam on Earth”. Brahma Chellaney has held appointments at Harvard, the Brookings Institution, the School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, and the Australian National University. He is author of 9 books, and writes opinion pieces for the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, the Japan Times, Mint, the Economic Times, and the Times of India. One can conclude from articles that he is advancing Indian and American narratives. He tried to create connection between Al-Qaeda and Tableeghi Jamaat.
The question is whether religion or any ideology was involved in spreading the pandemics that killed millions of people in the past. The Black Death (1346-1353) an outbreak of Plague (Bubonic Plague) had ravaged Europe, Africa, and Asia, with an estimated death toll between 75 and 200 million people. Plague had been around for a very long time before the Black Death; it had caused a major catastrophe during the reign of the Roman Emperor, Justinian, who held sway in Constantinople from 527 to 565. However, in the middle of the 14th Century Plague had swept over the world, reaching in England in 1348 and killed some 50 percent of the population. Third Cholera pandemic lasted from 1852 to 1860, which is said to have originated in India, spreading from the Ganges River Delta before tearing through Asia, Europe, North America and Africa and ending the lives of over a million people.
Brahama Chellaney seems to be inspired by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which had called for a complete ban on Tableeghi Jamaat and its Nizamuddin Markaz besides freezing its bank accounts and closure of all its offices holding it responsible for spike in COVID-19 cases across India. Whereas Coronavirus cases are not specific to any community or religion, extremist government of BJP in India is especially targeting Muslims to advance its evil agenda. A day after BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje suspected ‘Corona Jihad’ motive behind religious gathering at Tableeghi Jamaat headquarters in Nizamuddin, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leadership started a hate campaign against Muslims. Alluding to the nationwide spurt in COVID-19 positive cases, a large number of which were allegedly linked to those who attended the Jamaat event, VHP said that the whole of India is in serious crisis today due to Tableeghi Jamaat gatherings. Calling it a “nursery and nourisher of Islamic radicalism and terror”, the VHP’s Central Joint Secretary Surendra Jain not only called for a complete ban on them but also freezing the bank accounts of Tableeghi Jamaat and closing down their offices and activities. The questions, however, were asked as to why were the clerics from Indoneshia and Malaysia preaching radical Islam on tourist visas not monitored?
—The writer is a senior journalist based in Lahore.
