and Islamic scholarShah Ahmad Noorani, since 1973 head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, along with other Pakistani Sunni scholars selected Ilyas Qadri, who was the then Punjab president of Anjuman Tulaba-ye Islām, JUP´s youth wing, aged 23, as the head of Dawat-e-Islami at Dār-ul ´ulūm Amjadia. D.I was established initially to dilute the influence of Tablighi Jamaat. In addition to mosques, Dawat-e-Islami has also started Dar-ul-Madinah, an Islamic school system that aims to improve conventional academic studies in conformity with Sharia. Dawat-e-Islami has expanded to the United Kingdom, around 1995 holding its first Ijtima in Halifax. As of December 2019, it now has at least 38 properties in the United Kingdom which are used as a network of Masajid, Islamic centers, schools and/or Jamias in order to create future scholars for society. Some buildings have been completed and others are being worked upon. More than 100,000 British Muslims are in some form or the other associated with Dawat-e-Islami in UK. Dawat-e-Islami operates twelve centers in Greece and seven in Spain. In 2009, a Madrassa was opened in Rotherham, England, for the education of young children and adults. In Athens, it has association with local Sufis and has established four centers. In Bangladesh, Dawat-e-Islami led Jamia-tul-Madina has produced scholars who are serving in United Kingdom.
Activities
Dawat-e-Islami is a worldwide Islamic Organization chipping away at a huge scope for the spread of Islam. Till now, the message of Dawat-e-Islami has spread into an excess of 194 nations of the globe through 26000+ workers, various volunteers and evangelists who are engendering the message of Islam in their area. The two most significant activities of Dawat-e-Islami are Madani Qafila and Madani Inamaat. Followers travel for specific days to spread the message of Islam to the people. Its leadership hardly interacts with the mainstream media, though the organization owns its own TV Channel known as Madani Channel. It also arranges an annual gathering of its followers in Bangladesh. In October 2002, a major Pakistani English-language newspaper reported about a 3-day public gathering in the city ofMultan, Pakistan which was held by Dawat-e-Isalmi organization and was attended by thousands of people from all parts of Pakistan and other counteries. Pakistan Railways had used special trains from Karachi, Hyderabad and Nawabshah to take passengers to Multan. Ilyas Qadri spoke at the first and last sessions of the gathering.
Call to Righteousness
Dawat-e-Islami is organized in small units of lay preachers, who invite for weekly and annual congregations. They stress the strict and literal imitation of the life of Muhammed in all aspects of the daily routine. As missionary, the lay preacher has to act like an ideal Muslim. The "Islamic Project" of Dawat-e-Islami is the "Sunnaization", that is the re-shaping and re-construction of the daily routine and the individual markers of identity based on the examples of the Prophet and the Sahabi as portrayed in the Hadith-Literature. Daway-e-Islami arranges Haftawar Ijtima in cities around the world. Dawat-e-Islami held its first congregation for deaf, dumb and blind students at its central headquarters Faizan-e-Madinah. Hundreds of students between 16 and 18 years of age attended the programme. , Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal with Volunteers of Dawat-e-Islami
Annual Islamic gatherings (Ijtema)
Dawat-e-Islami organized a large annual congregation in Multan, Pakistan until 2008, when it was discontinued for security reasons, and in Birmingham. In 2002, around 500,000 people participated in its congregation in Multan, Pakistan. Dawat-e-Islami planned to hold an annual congregation in December 1991 in Mumbai. Ilyas Attar Qadri tried to cancel it, but local activists held it anyway. A dispute about this, caused the Mumbai-based group to break away as Sunni Dawate Islami.
In Madrasa tul Madina, children are taught how to read the Qur’an in Arabic, as well as foundational Islamic studies. Currently, Madrasa tul Madina has around 3790 branches, with approximately 169,000 boys and girls studying free of charge in these institutions.
Madani Channel
Since 2009, Dawat-e-Islami has operated its Madani Channel, which has Islamic programming.
COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan, Dawat-e-Islami distributed food ration bags to needy people affected by lockdown in Pakistan. On 20 April 2020, Imran Attari said that Dawat-e-Islami had distributed 250,000 ration bags across Pakistan, including 40,000 in Karachi. The organisation had also set up blood donation centres in 13 places in Karachi.
Criticism
While the movement officially condemns violence and has been described as "too liberal" by the Taliban, some of its followers have killed others for actions that Dawat-e-Islami followers have called "blasphemy". For example, the governor of Punjab, Salmon Taseer, was murdered by one of his bodyguards, a follower of Dawat-e-Islami, who said that his influence was the Governor's support for changes to a blasphemy law. However, he later denied being influenced by Dawat-e-Islami in the murder.
