Tablighi Jamaat : an Islamic revivalist movement and radicalism issues

This article discusses Tablighi Jamaat as Islamic transnational movement that emerged in the early 20th century and attracted a great attention post nine eleven in America. One of the interesting that invite debate among scholars is that Tablighi Jamaat is a part of radicalist movements or terrorist groups or only an Islamic missionary movement. Those debates are related to the existence of Tablighi Jamaat around the world. Moreover, it can be said that every country in the world have settled by Tablighi Jamaat. American Foreign Council report shows that tablighist is estimated 50 to 80 million people. The numbers have invited suspicion of policy maker from many countries, particularly on radicalism issues. Discussion on this article based on basic questions on who are Tablighists, their aims and their activities. However, the main purpose of this article to show how scholars argue on the existence of Tablighi and possibility on Tablighi Jamaat involvement on radicalism actions. This study based on library research and direct observation on Tablighi in Central Java dan East Java.