Radical Islam finds willing recruits in fresh converts

A few weeks ago, Jaya Menon of the Indian Express wrote a report on how fresh converts are being targeted by radical Islamists to swell their ranks. Excerpts from this very worrying piece published 26^th Jul ’06.

“Hundreds of men and women from all over the state (Tamil Nadu) , mostly the jobless and Dalits, have been converted to Islam in the last five years. Intelligence agencies say they have reason to believe that the mass conversions could be used as a potential bridge to terror…Every four months, more than 50 Hindus from all over Tamil Nadu, converge at Arivagam (House of Knowledge), an Islamic learning institute, after going through the conversion ceremonies at local Jamats, to learn about the new religion they have embraced,…Of the five MNP activists arrested on July 22 for plotting a terror attack on Coimbatore, two, Athikur Rehman and Tipu Sultan, had converted to Islam only a year ago, and had their indoctrination at the Arivagam.

Funded by the Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP), which has now officially entered the state intelligence records as “a possible militant outfit, which needs to be closely watched”, the Arivagam has churned out more than 2,500 converts, mostly in their 20s, in the five years of its active existence, The Indian Express said. Of these, at least 350 are women, trained at the Darul Hikma (Centre of knowledge) in mountainous Eruvadi, close to Tirunelveli, 250 km from Muthuthevanpatty.

But what’s worrying the state police, which finds itself increasingly chasing Muslim fundamentalists and seizing arms and country-made explosives, are intelligence reports that as many as 5,000 MNP members, including several Arivagam pass-outs, have settled in and around
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu’s industrial hub.

”MNP clearly aims to use the neo-converts for its operations. The advantage is they could easily pass for Hindus and use that identity”, says a member of the state’s special intelligence cell, with a brief to closely track the MNP…The state intelligence wing’s dossier on MNP…talks about the outfit fashioning itself after Kerala’s notorious and elusive NDF. “They function as segregated cells for each operation, each cell knowing about the other in the network only on a need-to-know basis.”There is little hard and actionable intelligence with the police about the MNP’s precise sources of funding. The outfit is known to run 25-odd charitable organizations across the state. “They call themselves the “Secret Group”, have a well-coordinated low profile structure and share the usual declared extremist goals of Islamization.” a senior police officer says.

The village head of the Dalit colony in Muthuthevanpatty, E N Karuppiah, said at least 50 Dalit families in the village, with its 500-odd members, have already converted to Islam.

”Not surprising. They are poor, very poor, and are easily lured by money, land and houses”, he said.

Full report at  http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/9401.html