Modi govt 'blessing in disguise' for ISIS: Indian jihadi in Afghanistan

New Delhi: Fugitive Islamic State group preacher from Kerala, Abdul Rashid Abdullah, who is wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for leading 23 residents from the state to join the terrorist group in Afghanistan, is now telling his target audience to travel to the war-torn country instead of waging jihad in India.

In an interview to the Indian Express, Abdullah justified his stand by saying that it has become impossible to wage ‘offensive jihad’ in India.

Today, it is impossible to wage offensive jihad in India. First, we have to consolidate the Caliphate, and then expand its frontiers,” he was quoted as saying.

Abdullah said that the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, in Afghanistan was telling Indian Muslims to ‘wait, the Caliphate is coming faster than you think’. He claimed that the aim was for ‘the whole world to be ruled by Allah, so he alone can be worshipped, not false gods’.

Calling the Narendra Modi government a ‘blessing in disguise’ for ISIS, Abdullah said in the interview that this is because while Muslims face ‘visible’ oppression in some parts of India, in other parts they do not realise they are being oppressed. Abdullah claimed that the Modi government was planning to change the Constitution, and only then, Muslims would truly be awakened and ‘start searching for a solution’.

Lashing out at Muslim scholars for ‘misleading’ the community in India, Abdullah said that while they claim that it is possible for Muslims to practise their faith fully in India - pray, fast, go for hajj etc, they do not mention that there is no scope for ‘offensive jihad’ in the country.

Stating that Islam seeks to ‘fight evil’, Abdullah said there was evil all around in the country. He blamed the Hindus for practicing idol worship, and said evils like alcoholism, prostitution and homosexuality were also rife in the country. However, Abdullah bemoaned that no Muslim could raise his hand to stop these.

Claiming that Islam was ‘spread by the sword, not by peace’, Abdullah said in the interview that the Prophet Mohammad the Caliph Abu Bakr Siddiq, and their followers conquered the world by the sword, not by doing ‘dawah’.

Dismissing the claim of Muslim scholars in India that campaigning to improve the conditions of Muslims in India was more important than global jihad, Abdullah said education and jobs were pseudo-achievements, and the respect for other religions was anti-Islamic.

“Indian Muslim leaders fall into three categories”, he alleged, “those who do not know the truth, those who deliberately obscure the truth, and those who realise the truth, but only wish to work for it indirectly, fearful of the consequences of speaking out," he added.

Abdullah also claimed that 'any Muslim' supported the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, and called the Caliphate in Afghanistan 'a kind of utopia'. He also said that many Indians, 'far more than you can imagine', were travelling to Afghanistan to fight for ISIS.

Decrying even the fundamentalist Taliban, Abdullah claimed their actions were anti-Islamic because they wanted to implement Sharia only in Afghanistan, not the whole world.

The preacher said that Muslim youth had realised that western philosophy and western ways of life 'rested on shaky foundations' and some had turned to atheism. But he said that the advent of the internet and the knowledge of English had 'opened up a new world' for these youth.