Chapter Six

The ‘Islamisation’ of Violence two purposes. One, for peacefully inviting people to what is good, or dawat-e khair, and, two, for peacefully preaching the message of God to people. The former refers to conveying the message of Islam to non-Muslims. And by enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong is meant the fulfilling of the responsibility of exhorting and advising Muslims. Besides this, forming organizations for political agitation is entirely an innovation or bid‘ah and deviation (zalalat) from the right path that has no sanction in Islam. It must be made clear here that in the Quran the term jama‘at refers to a group, and not to a political party. The ideology invented by the founders of the Ikhwan ulMuslimoon and the Jamaat-e-Islami was against the Islamic shariah as well as against nature. Such a self-styled ideological interpretation always starts with violence and ends in hypocrisy. As long as people are obsessed by their romantic notions they are so mesmerized by their imaginary ‘revolution’ that they can go to the extent of declaring legitimate even suicide-bombing in the name of seeking martyrdom. But when the hard rock of reality forces their fervour to cool down, they resort to sheer hypocrisy: that is, at the intellectual level and in terms of belief they continue to cling to their ideology, but in practical terms, they fully adjust to reality in order to protect their worldly interests.