Call for Transnational Jihad: Lashkar-e-Taiba 1985-2014

by Arif Jamal

On November 20, 1979, hundreds of jihadist Salafists, known as Juhayman's Ikhwan, rebelled against the House of Saud and occupied the Ka'aba. The Saudis arrested the rebel leader, Juhayman al-'Utaybi, and the self-anointed Mahdi, Muhammad bin Abdallah al-Qahtani, and executed them, along with scores of others after summary trials. The Meccan rebellion was the first jihadist operation by a truly international jihadist group. Few understood its significance at the time because of its failure. The danger the ideology of Juhayman's Ikhwan posed, and still poses, revealed itself slowly. Juhayman's ideology has survived in the shape of the JuD/LeT, which grew out of Juhayman's ideology. By 1979, Juhayman's Ikhwan had won over followers in many countries, and established secret cells in some countries. Those who died during the rebellion or were arrested and later executed "made only a tiny fraction of the group which had spread across the world. Others spread out to the rest of the world with Juhayman's agenda." Between 1979 and 1987, Juhayman's Ikhwan built their global organizational network. Many of Juhayman's surviving direct accomplices, including Syed Allama Badiuddin Shah Rashdi, Hamid Mohammad Bahaziq, Mahmood Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, Hassan As-Sareehi, and Ahmad Saad al-Ghamdi, founding official of the International Islamic Relief Organization, founded the Markaz Dawat wal Irshad in circa August 1987, renamed the Jamatud Dawa in December 2001. Today, the JuD is present in some 100 countries. Based on primary sources, this book tells the hitherto unknown story of how the JuD was formed by the surviving members of Juhayman's Ikhwan and how it became a global terrorist organization.

Genres: Pakistan

320 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2014

Reviews

[Kanav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dont know if I was more impressed or horrified after reading this book. Its a great read for people in subcontinent. Though you will have some trouble in remembering the names(there are too many) but its weaves the narrative nicely and puts in context different global events. I hope you enjoy it.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars. I read this book prior to Stephen Tankel’s Storming the World Stage but felt I needed a second source before I could evaluate it. It draws on many of the same Mumbai-related case sources, but goes deeper into LeT/JuD’s founding – particularly linking some of the founding members of the Markaz Dawat wal Irshad (as the group was first known, later renamed JuD in 2001) to the Salafist movement led by Juhayman al-Utaybi, who carried out the 1979 attack on the Prophet’s Mosque in Mecca. (Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, aka Sheikh Abu Abdul Aziz, who headed the MDI external affairs department in the 1990s and fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia, appears to be the main link.)

Much more so than the Tankel book, the emphasis of this book is LeT/JuD’s international connections, in India and abroad. These connections are extensive and extensively documented - a lot of primary source research went into this book in terms of pulling together court cases, jihadi literature, and so forth. But ultimately I didn’t feel the book gave as clear a sense of the context for these connections – the significance for JuD/LeT, the impact their presence had on local conflicts or other rival organizations, and the degree to which JuD/LeT-affiliated fighters might or might not be operating under the sanction of the group’s leadership. The impression instead (as per the title) is rather of an ever-expanding, maximalist militant organization tied into every conflict. The book certainly puts forward plenty of evidence that LeT/JuD should not be viewed solely as a problem for India, but ultimately I felt I needed to read further before being able to assess the significance of some of its reporting.

Still, a useful reference and companion piece to the Tankel book.