Devotees came in their tens of thousands, unrolled mats, pitched tents, assembled mini-stoves, and spent the weekend in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad sipping tea, praying and listening to sermons. From Friday night to Sunday morning, preachers of Islamic revivalism held sway over a congregation organised by Tablighi Jamaat, a missionary organisation that has spread from South Asia to Europe, North America, South Africa, and South East Asia. "Allah sent us for the good of mankind, whether it is in India, China, Russia or elsewhere," Haji Abdul Wahab, the white bearded Ameer, or leader, of the movement in Pakistan, told his flock at the beginning of the mass meeting. "We aren't for one nation. We're for the entire world. No one is our enemy except the devil," he told the crowd, many sitting cross-legged on the ground at a site until recently used as a tent village for victims of a big earthquake last year.Nevertheless, Tablighi Jamaat's name has frequently surfaced during investigations into terrorism in the West. According to British media reports, several suspects in the Heathrow airline plot uncovered by British police last month, with U.S. and Pakistani help, attended the group's meetings in Britain. Up to all four of the suicide bombers who attacked London's transport system in July last year are also reported by the British media to have been worshippers at Tablighi Jamaat's European headquarters in Dewsbury, in northern England.
French intelligence labelled the movement an "antechamber of fundamentalism", according to a report cited by French media. The United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation has said that al Qaeda has recruited Tablighi Jamaat members. "We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat in the United States, and we have found that Al Qaeda used them for recruiting," Michael J. Heimbach, the deputy chief of the FBI's international terrorism section told the New York Times in 2003.