The decision of Saudi Arabia’s Minister for Islamic Affairs, Dr Abdullatif Al-Alsheikh, to warn people that the Indian-origin puritanical movement, Tablighi Jamaat, is false and dangerous, and “a gateway to terrorism” is curious in itself because Wahhabism, the dominant Islamic ideology of the kingdom that houses two of the holiest shrines of the Islamic world, Mecca with its sanctuary, the Ka’aba, and Medina, where Prophet Muhammad lived in exile the last 10 years of his life, is more puritanical than that of the Jamaat.

It is but natural that the Indian media, across platforms, picked up the story and played it up because of Jamaat’s Indian origins – it was founded by Mohammad Ilyas Kandhalvi in Mewat in Haryana in 1926. The Indian media’s motives are curious as well. The right-wing media wants to pick on anything that links Islam and terrorism, and some of the liberal sections are also suspicious of the overt religiosity of the movement.

The Urdu press and opinion leaders of the community in the country have raised their voice in defence of the Jamaat as the organisation is looked upon with favour because of its religiosity and dedication. The issue will be debated in India between Hindu reactionaries led by representatives of the Sangh Parivar and Muslim conservatives mostly led by clerics. The debate in India is likely to run on predictable lines, with the Hindu reactionaries of the firm belief that violence, terror and intolerance are ingrained parts of Islam, and the Muslim conservatives ironically pleading for liberal pluralism without giving away their control of the community.b

But it is the Saudi government’s view of the issue that should be of greater interest. The conservative oil-rich country has been slowly moving away from a religion-based identity in the last few years, especially after the ascension of Sultan Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in 2015. The ruling class in the kingdom, despite internal differences, seem to have realised that they have to move away from an oil-dependent economy. And that the diversification of the economy cannot happen unless other societal changes happen. For example, women’s rights, in the limited sense peculiar to the place, like driving cars without a male relative and owning businesses, became part of the change.

King Salman has named his son Mohammed bin Salman as the Crown Prince, who has proved to be controversial. He had held the plutocrats of the kingdom in a luxury hotel to browbeat them over their hidden wealth. And he is accused of being the man behind the killing of Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. But he is also the man pushing aggressively for turning the country into a tourist and business destination, on the lines of Dubai.