Tablighi Jamaat
Transnational Sunni missionary movement founded in India (1926) by Muhammad Ilyas. Members spend extended periods (40 days to 4 months) on khuruj — door-to-door preaching journeys — significantly disrupting normal family and work life.
CLCI radar
BITE breakdown
0 — non-coercive missionary movement but high-demand on members' time and family life.
Profile facts
In context
Tablighi Jamaat is the largest Islamic missionary movement, organising annual ijtema gatherings of up to 5 million in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Members commit to khuruj — preaching tours of 3 days, 40 days, or 4 months — that take them away from family and work. The movement emphasises six points (kalimah, salat, ilm-o-zikr, ikram-i-Muslim, ikhlas-e-niyyat, dawat-o-tabligh). Non-political and theologically conservative; some ex-members report family disruption.
Key control doctrines
- Six points programme
- Khuruj (preaching tours) of 3 / 40 / 120 days
- Apolitical revivalism focused on personal piety
Recovery resources
- ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) — General referral and cult-aware therapist directory.
- INFORM (Information Network on Religious Movements) — LSE-founded UK research-based information service covering new religious movements.
- Reclamation Collective — Religious-trauma-aware therapist network; relevant for post-exit identity-rebuilding.
- Religious Trauma Institute — Religious-trauma clinical research and clinician directory.
- Freedom of Mind Resource Center — Steven Hassan's organisation; BITE-model resources and family-side exit guidance.
See the full curated list at /resources.
Legal cases & controversies
- Saudi Arabia banned Tablighi Jamaat (2021)
- Some Western governments monitor for alleged radicalisation links (disputed by scholars)
This profile is in progress — history, deeper BITE evidence and survivor voices are still being added. Contributions welcome via GitHub.
Timeline
- 1926Muhammad Ilyas founds Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat, India
- 1948Death of Ilyas; movement spreads under Muhammad Yusuf
- 1990s+Annual Bangladesh and Pakistan ijtema reach multi-million attendance
- 2010s+Saadi/Nizamuddin internal split
Sources
- Yoginder Sikand, 'The Origins and Development of the Tablighi Jamaat' (2002) search ↗
- Ebrahim Moosa academic work search ↗
We cite sources by name and outlet rather than fabricating links. Where a source includes its own URL, the open ↗ link opens it directly; otherwise search ↗ runs a Google Scholar query for the cited title — useful for verifying academic sources. For news outlets, search the outlet's own archive.
Change history
Substantive edits logged per the score-updates policy.
- 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch J corrective: Moderate-band (CLCI 20) entry upgraded from Mainstream-comparator lighter palette to NRM high-control palette — Batch J's clci<21 fallthrough was too lean for the documented control vector of this category.
- 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch J: per-group recovery resources applied via programmatic palette (closest-fit by category + subCategory + score). Palette: Mainstream-comparator lighter.
- 2026-05-20Source-density flags derived from existing free-text sources[]: academic sources. Heuristic auto-flag; subsequent editorial pass will populate structuredSources[] with reliability tiers.
- 2026-05-20Score band scheme migrated from 4 bands to 5 (Minimal 0–5 / Low 6–12 / Moderate 13–20 / High 21–30 / Extreme 31–40). No CLCI value changed; the new Minimal band was carved out of the bottom of the previous Low band.
Key terms in this profile
Relevant hubs
Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.
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We accept correction requests from anyone — current and former members, researchers, journalists, family members, and the listed organisation. Submissions are reviewed by an editor; we do not auto-publish.