<![CDATA[In India, Tablighi Jamaat says it is being targeted for coronavirus spread]>

The Muslim missionary group Tablighi Jamaat has insisted they are being unfairly blamed after Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi, who heads their New Delhi centre, was on Wednesday charged with culpable homicide for holding a religious event that fuelled a surge in Covid-19 cases in India.

"We are being targeted as if Indians are getting infected only because of us," said Mohammad Ashraf, a Delhi-based member of the group, who said it was the victim of media "propaganda" and would fight the charges against Khandalvi in court.

Twenty-four people who attended a Tablighi Jamaat gathering in New Delhi from March 13-15 tested positive for the coronavirus on March 31. The city's authorities on Wednesday said 1,080 of the 1,561 cases in New Delhi were linked to the gathering, while more than 25,500 people connected to it have been quarantined.

India has 13,430 cases of Covid-19 and 448 deaths.

Soon after the cases were reported, the group's international headquarters in Delhi's mostly Muslim Nizamuddin area was sealed. Thousands of followers " including some from Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh " were taken into quarantine by police after it emerged they had attended meetings there in mid-March.

Anil Mittal, a spokesman for the Delhi Police, confirmed charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder would be laid under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code, saying: "Investigation is on and arrest will happen."

Another senior Delhi police official, speaking anonymously, said those charges were added to the initial brief after the deaths of some members of Tablighi Jamaat.

Mittal described the allegation that Tablighi Jamaat had been targeted for being a Muslim group as "baseless".

Authorities have said some of those infected at the gathering had died, although the numbers have not yet been released. They also said people from other parts of the country and abroad kept visiting the five-storey building, and that the group had delivered sermons to large groups of people despite government orders on social distancing.

Tablighi Jamaat member Ashraf, however, said the visits occurred before India imposed restrictions on movement or gathering.

"On a daily basis, hundreds of members who pass by Delhi stop by at the headquarters. There were many such visitors even in March," he said. "Later, many members were stranded after the curfew was announced on March 22, and thereafter the nationwide lockdown on March 25."

He insisted that local police were informed of the presence of many members inside the building and that the group's members cooperated with medical officers who came to inspect the premises.

Once the lockdown was announced, Ashraf said other Tablighi Jamaat gatherings scheduled in India were cancelled. "We are law-abiding citizens, not criminals," he said.

A gathering in Malaysia organised by the same group in February was attended by 16,000 people and resulted in more than 700 infections there, while attendees also spread the coronavirus to Thailand, Brunei and Singapore. A planned March gathering in Indonesia was cancelled at the last minute.

Legal expert Faizan Mustafa pointed out that charging Delhi chief Khandalvi with culpable homicide was "wrong" because he did not organise the event to cause death. "Khandalvi had put himself at risk too by organising the event," he said.

Francis Robinson, a University of London professor who is an expert on Muslim politics and Islamic institutions in South Asia, said India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Delhi police had a record of "unfair action against Muslims".

Delhi fire officers disinfect an area in Nizamuddin, New Delhi, where several people who attended Tablighi Jamaat congregation tested positive for Covid-19. Photo: AP

Khandalvi had on March 19 played down the risk of Covid-19 infection by calling the coronavirus azaab " meaning divine punishment " and said it was a falsehood that people gathering in mosques would lead to more infections.

When the content of his speech went viral on social media, many Muslims distanced themselves from the group by calling it "insensitive" and "foolish".

Delhi Minorities Commission chairman Zafarul-Islam Khan on Friday called Tablighi Jamaat members "callous" for organising an event at a time when the coronavirus had spread widely in Southeast Asia, but he also blamed the government for allowing international delegates to enter India at such a time.

"The government should not have given them visas in the first place. Even if they had come, they should have been screened at the airport, how did they reach the venue?" said Khan, who added that gatherings in several Hindu places of worship had taken place around the same time.

Soon after the incident, a large section of right-wing Hindus ostracised Muslims on social media. Many Muslims were blamed for spreading the virus by not wearing masks amid claims they had attended prayers in the mosque even during the lockdown.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, chief minister of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, last week blamed Tablighi Jamaat for a spike in cases in his state, but experts have since disputed his claim. Media reports on Wednesday claimed a government-run hospital in Ahmedabad, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, segregated coronavirus patients based on their religion.

"What is surely upsetting for Indian Muslims is the number of fake stories and images being circulated on social media under the hashtag #CoronaJihad," said historian Shail Mayaram from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi.

Mujibur Rehman of Jamia Millia Islamia's Centre for Social Exclusion said the government's move to make the Tablighi Jamaat event look like the primary reason for the spread of Covid-19 in India was "wrong".

This will eventually lead to more "disenchantment, frustration and anxiety among Muslims and also others who don't want laws to be selectively used by the government against one community", Rehman said.

Founded in 1926 in India, Tablighi Jamaat has a presence in nearly 200 countries and wields considerable influence in Islamic communities. The group is a global missionary society or initiative that champions practising Islam as it was during in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad, from dressing to customs and rituals.

"One of the biggest motivations of Muslims who join the group is to move around in different places and preach Islam. But they travel and live moderately and are self funded," Rehman said.

Robinson from the University of London said its members came from all classes but the bedrock of its support was "lower-middle-class Muslims".

Additional reporting by Reuters

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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