I have many Deobandi madrassa trained friends/associates, dars-nizami grads. Highly intelligent, integrated & critical thinkers. Committed to context & care abt Islam here. They've educated me on many Deobandi related things, re both here and abroad.
I recognise there's difference btween what goes on at the seminary in India, & affiliates in UK & South Africa. A dar'uloom trained friend travelled to Deoband a short while ago & said many teachers refreshingly open minded & intellectually progressive. Found contrast to UK.
Here many Deobandi maulanas/muftis r particularly beset by parochial thinking, highly insular and cultist, true sectarians. Vast majority r intellectual failures & would never make it in western academia. They're robots trained 2 advocate Indo-Pak norms, & not faith in God.
UK Deos don't seem to (largely) have actual scholars, their maulanas r ambassadors of sub-continental Asianness. Yes they run mosques, but those buildings r really Asian embassies w/ prayer times. Institutions of Asian socialisation & racial propaganda.
They've done minimal to inspire a cultivated Islam in the UK that'd resonate with Brits or see Islam flourish here - THEY DONT CARE. Instead its used as a means of social control within Asian communities & poor laity caught up with it thinking it's religious guidance!
Even sectarian bickering & attacks has little to do w/ faith, they declare war on those who seem to threaten their ethno-cultural outlook/practices. Imam Abu Hanifa is a smokescreen. Their Hanafism cover 4 S. Asian cultural hegemony. Egyptians, Turks, Syrians Hanafi by different
They criticise salafis bt have a widespread madhkhali attitude to everyone. The most rabid in the UK associate w/ South African Deobandi cohort, not a decent bunch. I met some SA grads at Azhar, they told me it was a super-cult!
If UK Asian Muslims want to progress they must realise how damaging this western deobandism is to their progress. It holds Muslims back, keeps them in silos & ghettos, w/ regressive attitudes towards faith. Islam, according to their view, would NEVER produce a flourishing society
The Hanafi school is *phenomenal*, amongst the most dynamic & productive. This is not a criticism of Hanafi school or Deoband in India (beyond my purview). It's time to put it under the spotlight like they do everyone else. They try to make things religious BUT it isn't so.
"What abt Brelvis?" They're largely so insular & irrational (mainly in the north) that beyond walking past them in the street, I have little engagement. I'm not sure the vast majority of their maulanas and peers even speak English!
For record, I have nothing against Asianness, & I think the culture (like all cultures) is rich & has positive/ advantageous aspects. Bt this cultural hegemony on Islam & Muslims in UK, & the negative impact on public discourse has to be challenged. They're two separate entities.
