Why ex-Afghanistan VP has warned Indians against Deoband madrasa: The deep Taliban link

Amir Khan Muttaqi, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister, visited the Darul Uloom in UP’s Deoband recently

Former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh on Tuesday extended Diwali greetings to Indians and Hindus worldwide, but with a warning.

“Happy Diwali to all Indians and Hindus across the globe! Wishing you well. Please be mindful of the Deoband madrasa in the meantime,” Saleh said in a post on X.

Saleh’s post comes following the visit of Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban-led Afghanistan’s Foreign minister, to the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary in Uttar Pradesh. The Islamic seminary was one of Muttaqi's stopovers during his seven-day visit to India.

The visit was seen as a “religious diplomacy” at a time when Kabul’s ties with Pakistan are strained.

Mutaqqi was conferred with the Sanad (a certificate), giving him official permission to teach the Hadith. He then addressed a 4,000-strong crowd of students and other scholars and clerics. In his 30-minute address, he called upon the Darul Uloom members to visit Afghanistan.

Importance of Deoband seminary

Darul Uloom Deoband, a seminary which was set up in 1866 in Saharanpur, has influenced Islamic teaching in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Located in UP’s Saharanpur, it has produced Islamic scholars from India and around the world. The seminary was established in the late 1800s by Sayyid Muhammad Abid, Fazlur Rahman Usmai, Mahtab Ali Deobandi and others, according to ANI.

According to a 2020 report cited by Hindustan Times, the Islamic seminary had 34 departments and over 4,000 students pursuing studies.

The school mainly teaches manqulat, or Islamic education based on the study of texts and traditions from sources such as the Quran and Hadith.

According to the seminary's website, the Darul Uloom Deoband is renowned as a religious and academic centre in the Islamic world.

“In the sub-continent, it is the largest institution for the dissemination and propagation of Islam and the biggest headspring of education in the Islamic sciences,” the website stated. “Even as Cairo, after the fall of Baghdad, became the center of Islamic arts and sciences, exactly in the same way, after the decline of Delhi, academic centrality fell to the lot of Deoband.”

Link between Deoband and Taliban

The relationship between Darul Uloom Deoband and Afghanistan is long-standing. It is also known as the ideological alma mater of the Taliban. Taliban was founded on the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam, an ideology that started from the very seminary in Saharanpur, founded in 1866.

From the late nineteenth century onwards, the seminary attracted students not only from across India but also from Afghanistan. In fact, Afghan scholars were among the earliest foreign disciples to study at Deoband. They often returned to Kabul, Kandahar, and Khost to establish madrasas modelled on its curriculum and teaching style. These institutions helped embed the Deobandi ethos within Afghan religious life.

The seminary had also taken part in the freedom struggle against the British.

Even before Partition, Deobandi scholars had engaged Afghanistan in political and religious matters. During the famous Silk Letter Movement (1913–1920), Deobandi clerics sought to forge alliances with the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, and the German Empire to challenge British rule in India.

The late founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, graduated from a Deobandi seminary in Pakistan, along with several other Taliban leaders.

A majority of Sunni madrasas in Afghanistan are linked to the Deobandi school of thought.