Islamists forcing Deoband’s ‘liberal’ head to quit

A foray into liberalism at India’s extremist Deoband seminary – spiritual home for around half of UK Muslims – has back-fired.

The newly elected head of the seminary is likely to quit soon, after his liberal views enraged a conservative lobby backed by Pakistan, according to reports.

The governing council of the seminary, which trains the majority of Britain’s imams, has formed a committee to look into the allegations that Vice Chancellor Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi defied the traditions of his predecessors.

Vastanvi had offered to resign after violent clashes erupted between conservatives and his supporters over a controversial newspaper interview.

In an article in The Times of India, published on 19 January he had praised the chief minister of the state of Gujerat in which 2,000 Muslims were massacred in communal carnage in 2002.

The article quoted Vastanvi as saying that it was time for Muslims in Gujarat to move on as they were no longer discriminated against.

Worse still, he also praised Chief Minister Narendra Modi, whom India’s Muslim community and rights activists accuse of overseeing the killings.

Vastanvi’s statement is being used as a pretext to unseat him from the seminary (dar ul uloom) in Deoband town in northern India, considered second in importance to al-Azhar University in Cairo.

The Indian news portal rediff.com quoted an anonymous Deobandi lecturer as saying (February 17), ‘Evidently, the whole idea was to prevent any progressive Muslim from taking over the reins of this historic institution [Deoband].’

The portal identified Maulana Arshad Madni, a professor of Arabic at the seminary, as the leader of the ‘ultra conservative lobby’. Madni, a north Indian whose family has dominated Deoband’s affairs for decades, was a candidate for the Mohtamim or Vice Chancellor election on January 10.

But in a surprise move, the 18-member governing council gave the mandate to Vastanvi, a moderniser from west India who has an MBA degree, and is known for introducing western medicine, engineering, and allied courses at madrasas in western India.

Madni is considered a protégé of the Indian National Congress party, which leads the ruling United Progressive Alliance. Muslims in India have traditionally voted for the Congress.

Madni is also close to Maulana Fazlur Rahman, leader of a controversial Deobandi party in Pakistan, the Jamiat-ul-Ulema Islam (JUI), and an aide of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who was accused of creating the Taliban in the 1990s.*

A week before the governing council met on February 23, Rahman arrived in India to throw his weight behind the anti-Vastanvi lobby.

‘The proximity between Pakistani cleric Rehman and Arshad Madni was always an open secret. And even during his 17- hour long stay in Deoband, the two were seen together every minute,’ rediff.com reported on February 17.

With Rahman’s interference in Deoband, the writing on the wall for Vastanvi is for anyone to read.

Vastanvi is expected to put in his papers soon after the inquiry committee submits its report within three months.

If the committee accepts Vastanvi’s resignation, Maulana Mufti Abul Qasim Nomani - who was made a working Vice Chancellor on February 23 - will become full-fledged Mohtamim, says a statement on Deoband’s website.

Vastanvi is likely to leave Deoband back in the hands of the old guard before Ramadan starts on 1 August.