It is important to note at the outset of this article that I do not intend this as a defence of myself, however, there are a few people with seemingly loud voices that are causing trouble on the internet and are trying to undermine all the hard efforts of The Wahhabi Threat blog and the forthcoming publications that have been in works since 2009. These personal attacks in which these internet warriors daringly paint me with the title Wahhabi and Deobandi are designed to beguile fellow sunnis into rejecting the work from this blog. Although their attempts to date have failed dismally, I thought I would explain the very unusual set of circumstances that led to this attack on my self integrity and the very work here. I do take into consideration that many sincere Muslims see such he said she said rhetoric as complete rubbish, and so right they are to dismiss such attacks, vicious rumours, and I have confidence that the believers have intelligence to not see this article as another simple trashy reply which lowers ne to their standard of vindictive nit-picking.
The attacks began almost a year ago when I stuck my neck out to defend a Mufti Abu Layth from Birmingham. I had witnessed a number of suspicious profiles attacking him through memes in claim that he was a sexual predator. They based their accusations from a Birmingham news article that simply stated the Mufti was found with porn in his possession. Yet what the attackers was not telling the people is that the Mufti was cleared of all charges and found to be innocent. Even Mufti Abu Layth had disclaimed that he was part of a whatsapp group with a number of other people, and that videos and photos automatically downloaded to his blackberry device from this group. The case was that one or two members post indecent pictures on this whatsapp forum which would have downloaded onto every blackberry phone associated with that whatssapp group. It was not fair for Mufti Abu Layth to be accused of indecency due to somebody elses spam.
The culprit profiles did not care less for truth but due to their deep-seated hatred of Mufti Abu Layth they continued to post these memes accusing the Mufti of shamelessness. The severity of the accusations placed against Mufti Abu Layth was at such a severity that the Islamic Shariah stipulates punishment by whipping should the person making the accusation be found guilty of slander by a the traditional Islamic legal system. I only felt that it was needed to point this out. The names of the culprit profiles are Wobbler Hunter, Sunni Haq Hardam, Ahmad Tahawi, Sunni Lion, Sunni King, and also Noori Amjadi who seems to be the ring leader of the said group.
When I pointed their wrong doings out they argued fiercely that I am a Wahhabi Deobandi agent. Their argument was poor and based on the premise that I have studied some online courses with Cordoba Academy based in Morocco. Although it is true I have studied some texts with the said Academy, I do not see how this makes me a Deobandi, or even a Wahhabi. This is how their rumours began. Had I have never stood up for the mentioned Mufti I would not have put myself on their radar.
My disagreements with them was never based on anything creedal. in fact I share the same creed with them, yet I have been deemed an unbeliever and a hypocrite by this pocket of people as they have labeled me a Dajjal, Shaytaan and other abusive titles, even calling me a yazeedi kaafir. Their unauthorised and baseless method of excomunication is indeed a trait of the Khawaarij and it only echoes what Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller was mentioning about the state of some of the todays subcontinent Barelwis and their undying habit of labeling Muslims as disvelievers in his is article about Imaan and Kufr. Even though I do not agree with everything the Shaykh has said in the article, he has hit the nail on the head about the mannerism of those claiming to represent the maslak of Imaam Ahmad Rida Khan.
After many online discussions and short refutations of this small pocket of people we find that Noori and his other primates are not interested in displaying the true facts, but would rather play on the demagogy of their anti social group mentality. In any case, rather than be true defenders of the Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah and have that desire to bring people towards the truth they wish to instigate and seek a persons kufr and do everything they can within their power to proof that such and such person is a kaafir or munaafiq. This is undoubtedly not beffiting behaviour for a Muslim and I am appalled and left questioning how somebody who claims to believe in Allah and the Last day can stoop to such low levels of persecution that is merely based on nothing but satanic outrage, hatred and jealousy.
I would have had more to say, but I feel it is too timely, for now. If I have anything more to say on this issue I will write it within the comments. Thank you for reading.
That group of people are coming from a website sunniport. A small group of people barely dozen (of which a couple are the main opinion makers which then circulate among that closed group of dozen), based in Britain, but very loud like they alone represent Sunnism. From reading their forums one can see that it is a result of the classic case of “students of knowledge” that suddenly turns out to consider themselves bigger than actual scholars and go around dishing erroneous opinions and fatwas based on half baked knowledge and perspective. Similar to case of Salafi “students of knowledge” who purifying and throwing people of the manhaj ended up throwing their own scholars. My advice is to not consider their opinion as representative of even the living scholars they claim to follow or part off until you actually hear from the mouth of those scholars directly.
A bit of observations on them regarding their main focus of their discussions and how they revolve around it 24/7:
1) Charging kufr on Hamza Yusuf (as a case example but not restricted to him)
Here they had a minute legit point/objection initially but because they wanted to pick on Hamza Yusuf for reasons beyond it they started to exaggerate more and more until it reached takfir or concealed takfir. And this is case with some of what they say that it might have a legit angle or basis or aspect within it, but completely blow it off proportion based on loads of assumptions, false deductions and inferences. The next step then is they formulating weird opinions and interpretations to justify that takfir, and last step is this false takfir & reasoning starts getting applied on everyone and becomes a trend where people dish out takfir based on analogy with case of Hamza Yusuf
2) Guilt by association
Now that Hamza Yusuf (as an example again) is the prime living devil to them, they are frustrated that nobody takes them seriously and goes around picking on everyone associating with Hamza Yusuf which starts off by “we must talk to him about the problems with HY” and then reaches stage of them searching for something to accuse all these associates of being heretics or make that “ah no wonder he associates with HY” argument, and finally ends with takfir on them and finding something to feel good about that their takfir was warranted. So for example with the recent event of Habib Ali Jifri to UK, they were more interested in finding something to make takfir and accuse Habib Ali Jifri of being a heretic, munafiq, … etc.
3) Takfir of Deobandi scholars as a litmus test
They want the Muslim world to make takfir of Deoband scholars and that is kind of their first litmus test for “purity” of the Sunnism. Its not enough to reject and disassociate from the erroneous positions of Deoband scholars on the issues of contentions but instead takfir must be done even today. And further they put onus upon scholars worldwide to actually read the whole loads subcontinent literature related to Deoband-Berelwi and so they demand/expect all worldwide scholars to take exactly the same position and behaviors with respect to Deoband. If they would have instead spend time writing up to date academic literature that convey these aspects to scholars worldwide today, it would do more than do nothing and expect worldwide scholars to know every minute bit of detail going on in the subcontinent.
4) Students of Knowledge telling scholars what to do
Frustrated that their opinions never goes beyond the closed group within that internet forum, they then form personal campaigns to take these issues they created online to scholars and push them to speak on it and hear from them what they want to hear. So you constantly see them talking about how “we should tell the scholars to say x and y” or “this must stop right now, the scholars need to come out and say x and y and clear the issue”, “im afraid the scholars don’t know x and y, we need to clarify this and make sure this scholar is safe”, “in this day and age, i consider all scholars as fallen into deviancy or undependable, except for A”.
My advise to them is: 1) Stop talking 2) Take any issues you have straight to your scholars 3) Let the scholars do the talking and address the subjects.
Having spent a lot of time in Barelvi Mosques and having lived in areas overwhelmingly populated by Barelwis I have seen similar things. There is an irony in the fact that the people so proud of defending the traditional mainstream Indian interpretation of Sunnism so commonly demonstrate a very modern sectarianism not just against anyone they deem to have gone off their very particular interpretation of what represents Ahlus Sunnah but also against anyone who isn’t as strict against Wahhabis as they are. The irony is that many Barelvis seeking to defend classical Islam have often forgotten that there was a historical breadth of Sunni views and that within limits there was tolerance of other divergent views.