The Deobandis: Part 1
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2016
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Deobandis are virtually unknown to most British people, yet their influence is huge. As the largest Islamic group in the UK, they control over 40% of mosques and have a near monopoly on Islamic seminaries, which propagate a back-to-basics, orthodox interpretation of Islam.
Founded in a town called Deoband in 19th Century India, it's a relatively new tradition within the Islamic faith, but has spread throughout the world, with the UK being a key centre. Migrants from India and Pakistan brought Deobandi Islam to the UK during the 1960s and 1970s, setting up mosques and madrassas in the mill towns of Bury and Dewsbury, from which a national network grew.
The Deobandi movement is large and diverse: from the quietest and strictly non-violent missionary group the Tablighi Jamaat to the armed sectarian and jihadist groups of Pakistan.
The BBC's former Pakistan correspondent Owen Bennett Jones investigates which strands of Deobandi opinion have influence in the UK, speaking to people from within the British Deobandi community, from scholars to missionaries to madrassa students.
In the first of two programmes he explores claims that Deobandi Islam is intentionally isolationist and that its strict beliefs put it at odds with mainstream British culture, leaving the community segregated from wider British society. Though if true, is that really the fault of Deobandi Muslims?
Producers: Richard Fenton-Smith & Sajid Iqbal Researcher: Holly Topham
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, thank you for downloading the Analysis Podcast. Here's another program made by the team which we think you will also enjoy. |
| 0:07.0 | The BBC's former Pakistan correspondent, Owen Bennett Jones, |
| 0:11.0 | profiles the most dominant force in British Islam, the Deabandis. |
| 0:15.8 | It can all seem so opaque, Sunni Muslim, Shia Muslim, and then the other categories were |
| 0:21.9 | Harbese, Salafis and Sufis, for example, |
| 0:25.0 | and always the question, |
| 0:26.5 | From where does the militancy draw its inspiration? |
| 0:30.0 | Having written about Pakistan for nearly 20 years, I've picked up some understanding of the reasons that some South Asian Muslims are into ecstatic spiritualism, |
| 0:40.0 | while others want to die for the Taliban. |
| 0:42.0 | What I hadn't realized until working on this... while others want to die for the Taliban. |
| 0:43.0 | What I hadn't realized until working on this program |
| 0:46.0 | is the extent to which the religious politics of Muslims |
| 0:49.0 | in South Asia is mirrored here in the UK. |
| 0:57.0 | This program will be looking at one specific group of Muslims. They're called the Diabandis, and they're the dominant force in British Islam, |
| 1:02.0 | controlling more mosques than any other group, as well as a network of religious |
| 1:06.1 | seminary or madrasas. |
| 1:08.4 | In researching the dear bandies, we've uncovered a secret history of jihadis propagation in Britain and you can hear all about |
| 1:15.0 | that in next week's programme. |
| 1:17.8 | This week though we're concentrating more on the quietest wing of Deobandy Britain and exploring that has been a revelation to. |
| 1:26.5 | My name is Mufti Muhammad I mean Pandor. |
| 1:29.4 | I'd like to say I was born and born in New York City but I was about four and I was brought up in this area but I was born and born in New York City but I was about four and I was I was brought up in this area |
| 1:34.7 | butting deusbury. |
... |
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