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What is Tablighi Jamaat, headquartered at Markaz Nizamuddin, now dubbed one the coronavirus hotspots in India

Markaz Nizamuddin is the international headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat where hundreds of people are always present and depart to different parts of the country for missionary work.

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Nizamuddin area in Delhi, where a religious congregation was held earlier this month, has turned out to be one of the 10 hotspots of coronavirus identified by the government on Tuesday. 

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said 700 people who were evacuated from the Markaz (Centre) on Monday-Tuesday have been quarantined while around 335 people have been admitted to hospitals."

Besides, participants from across India, the congregation was attended by people from different countries, including Indonesia and Thailand. While 1500 people left the venue before the lockdown, authorities said over 1,000 were still there when they arrived on Monday. 

Markaz Nizamuddin has said it has not violated any provision of the law and had requested the authorities several times for people stranded at the premises. 

The Markaz is the international headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat where hundreds of people are always present and depart to different parts of the country for missionary work. 

Here is all you need to know about the Islamic organisation:

Tablighi Jamaat translates to “Society for Spreading Faith” whose primary purpose is to encourage Muslims everywhere to be more religiously observant.

The Jamaat aims to reform Muslims by working at the grassroots level. The organisation operates in roughly 150 countries around the world, including in Europe, Africa and the Americas but most of its followers are in India. 

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The organisation was founded by Islamic scholar and teacher Maulana Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi in Mewat near Delhi, India in 1926. 

According to a Pew Research Center essay, the movement began as an effort to counteract the activities of Hindu revivalists in India, who at the time were attempting to convert Muslims to Hinduism. 

Ilyas envisioned a movement that would send missionaries to villages to instil Muslims with core Islamic values, the essay notes. 

Goals

The Jamaat aims to reform Muslims by working at the grassroots level. The followers of the group believe that by reforming Muslims to be more religiously observant, it can reform the society. 

The organisation does not indulge in religious conversion and its followers believe that educating Muslims to follow basic tents of Islam is more important.

How it operates

The followers operate in a top to bottom approach where teams are dispatched to various parts from where preachers spread to and work out of local mosques. They reach out to Muslims and remind them to adhere to the basic principles of Islam. These preachers often venture out in localities adjacent to mosques to meet local Muslims. encourage them to more regularly attend prayers at mosques.

Political views

The members of the organisation do not openly express their political views. The presence of the group in around the world shows that it has been able to work with governments in all countries irrespective of the state religion and political views of the leadership. 

 

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