Since several Muslim advocacy groups began condemning as āIslamophobicā any recognition of terroristsā self-declared religious ideologies, the State Department has shied away from acknowledging such obvious connections. But, as Secretary Gates emphasized in subsequent speeches on soft power, long-term success in the conflict against a āmalignant form of terrorism inspired by jihadist extremismā will depend less on military engagements and more on the āoverall ideological climate within the world of Islam.ā
First, Pakistan must close all schools and offices nationwide of LeTās charity front, Jamaat-ul-Dawa. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed founded LeT in 1990 and changed its name to Jamaat-ul-Dawa (āSociety for Preachingā) after the U.S. froze LeTās assets and called for it to be banned following a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. At that time Saeed publicly quit the militant wing, but remained head of Jamaat, which functions as LeTās fundraising, educational, and social-services wing.
Jamaat runs schools and offices in over 60 Pakistani cities, including a 75-acre campus encompassing a university, madrassa, and school in Muridke, near Lahore. This complex and its students, one of whom was among the London Tube bombers, have been implicated in numerous violent attacks. Muridke is Saeedās main base of operations, and he was reportedly giving public lectures there right up to the day before the Bombay attacks. He is one of 20 Pakistanis whose extradition India now demands.
Since Bombay, Pakistan has raided only one of Jamatās hundreds of facilities, the Muzaffarabad camp in Pakistani Kashmir where the Bombay jihadis were trained.
Extremist indoctrination was an essential step in LeTās preparations for the siege. According to press reports, the lone Bombay jihadi arrested, Ajmal Amir Kasab, told police his training began and ended with ideological indoctrination: āAt first, it was the recitation of the Koran and lectures about jihad. He was being prepared mentally.ā After subsequent military training, Kasab was ābriefedā one last time, actually by Saeed himself. According to the Washington Post, Saeed ātold them that this was good for the community and the religion, and that they were blessed to be martyrs.ā He no doubt drew from one of Jamaatās publicly distributed instruction manuals, entitled āWhy We Are Performing Jihad.ā
The brand of Islamist ideology in which Kasab and his Bombay cohorts were indoctrinated is based on Saudi Wahhabism. Pakistanās current ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, formerly the co-editor of the Hudson Institute journal Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, wrote in 2005 that LeT is Pakistanās āmost significant jihadi group of Wahhabi persuasionā and is ābacked by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services.ā Saeed founded LeT after returning from Saudi Arabia, where he had been immersed in advanced Wahhabi studies and developed contacts with Saudi sheikhs who supported jihad in Afghanistan.
In turn, Saeed found fertile ground for LeT in a South Asian jihadist movement founded in the 19th century by Sayyid Ahmed of Bareili, who himself, according to Haqqani, had been influenced by Wahhabi ideas during his pilgrimage to Mecca. As Haqqani wrote, Ahmedās revival of the ideology of jihad became āthe prototype for subsequent Islamic militant movements in South and Central Asia and is also the main influence over the jihad network of al-Qaeda and its associated groups in the region.ā
Saudi oil riches have increased the influence of Wahhabism exponentially: Legions of people have gone to Saudi Arabia as missionaries, pilgrims, or workers, and returned home with Wahhabi views. In Pakistan, such Wahhabi followers call themselves āAhle-Hadithā or People of the Prophetās Tradition. The network of Ahle Hadith seminaries and schools has strong links to LeT and the other jihadi groups. One example is the Darsatul Islamia madrassa in Karachi, where Hafiz Saeed is known to hold his public gatherings. The International Crisis Group, in its 2007 detailed study on Karachi madrassas, reported that when security agencies raided Darsatul Islamia to arrest 19 students in connection with the Bali bombings, Saeed was addressing a gathering in the same hall. Saeed was not arrested, nor was that madrassa shut down.
The Heritage Foundation is one among many think tanks to attest to the connection between Saudi Arabia, Pakistani Wahhabi madrassas, and jihadi groups. As a Heritage scholar testified to Congress last year: āThe Saudi Arabian organization, Harmain Islamic Foundation, reportedly has provided substantial financial assistance to the Ahle-Hadith madrassas, which have provided fighters to the banned Kashmiri militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.ā
The International Crisis Group calculates that there are 36 Ahle Hadith madrassas in Karachi alone. They are unmonitored and unregulated, but it can be certain that they aim to brainwash Muslim boys. The Wahhabi teachings they employ likely resemble those found in the Saudi government textbooks currently posted on the Saudi Ministry of Education website: Militant jihad against infidels is āthe summit of Islam,ā āone of the noblest acts,ā and āone of the most magnificent acts of obedience to Godā; martyrdom is a ānoble life forceā; the clash between the Muslim umma and the Jews and Christians will continue to doomsday; apostates should be killed; etc.
The crucible of Americaās soft power is now in Pakistan. The U.S. must seriously respond to the ideological component of the terroristsā war against the West. Such efforts cannot be limited to earthquake assistance, public-relations efforts to re-brand America, and hope for the effectiveness of Saudi deprogramming sessions for captured jihadis. Not all of Pakistanās 10,000-plus madrassas should be closed. But Pakistan must be pressured to arrest Hafiz Saeed and shutter his Jamaat ul Dawa operation, the Wahhabi Ahle Hadith madrassas, and those other Islamist ideological training centers that in fact function as jihadi feeder schools for a multitude of terrorist organizations. The U.S. must also stop Saudi Arabia from spreading, through financial support, educational materials, and dawa efforts, its noxious Wahhabi brand of Islam.
Unless Pakistanās ideological climate changes, the world should brace for continued jihadist terror.
National Reviewā Nina Shea is director of the Hudson Instituteās Center for Religious Freedom. Her reporting on Saudi educational texts can be found
here.