It was an unsettling sight for the locals of Agios Nikolaos, a picturesque town on the Greek island of Crete named after Christianity’s patron saint for sailors. On September 5, 2024, members of the Pakistani Islamist organization Dawat-e-Islami (DeI) marched through the streets, their loudspeakers blaring Islamic chants and the call of “Allahu Akbar” echoing through the air. Leading the procession was Maulana Ubaid Raza, the son of Dawat-e-Islami’s founder, Maulana Ilyas Qadri, whose writings have been used to justify numerous assassinations in recent years.
Dawat-e-Islami is a national security threat to Greece, considering their actions in other countries.
“It was something we are not used to here,” reported a local news outlet, Pronews. “Pakistanis paraded through the streets with their music blaring, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ in a display that seemed out of place in a small Greek town.”
The march, however, was more than just a one-off event. It was part of Dawat-e-Islami’s growing presence in Greece and other Western countries—a fact that many are now beginning to see as a threat. Constantinos Bogdanos, a former member of the Greek Parliament, publisher, and journalist, voiced his concerns: “The Pakistani community in Greece is becoming an increasingly problematic element. They openly defy Greek laws and traditions, often orchestrated by Islamist centers in Pakistan. In such a context, Dawat-e-Islami is thriving, largely unchecked by the authorities,” he told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI).
What Is Dawat-e-Islami?
Founded in Pakistan in 1981, Dawat-e-Islami is a Barelvi organization that follows a specific interpretation of Sunni Islam rooted in South Asian Sufi traditions. But as the group expanded beyond Pakistan’s borders, it brought with it an ideology that has sometimes led to radicalization and violence. The Barelvi and Deobandi sects of South Asian Sunni Islam have long vied for dominance, with their political struggles often erupting into violence.
While Dawat-e-Islami presents itself as a peaceful religious organization committed to training imams, its global expansion has been marked by numerous acts of violence. For example, Mumtaz Qadri, the jihadi who killed Pakistani governor Salman Taseer in 2011, was a follower of Dawat-e-Islami, as was Tanveer Ahmed, who murdered Asad Shah, an Ahmadi Muslim shopkeeper in Scotland in 2016. Ahmed declared Shah a “heretic” to justify his attack.
Dawat-e-Islami ideology also fomented violence on September 25, 2020, when Zaheer Hassan Mehmood, a Pakistani-born terrorist, stabbed two people outside the former headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Zaheer stated that his religious guide was Maulana Ilyas Qadri, the leader of Dawat-e-Islami.
And in 2022, two men beheaded an Indian shopkeeper in the city of Udaipur because of his support for Nupur Sharma, a former member of parliament and a critic of Islam. The murder was recorded on camera, and the video went viral. Rajasthan police said that Ghouse Mohammad, one of the two accused, had gone to Karachi in Pakistan in 2014 and had links with Dawat-e-Islami.
All these attacks appear to be justified by the writings of Ilyas Qadri, who, according to the South Asia Media Research Institute (SAMIR), once declared, “All Muslim scholars agree that a blasphemer must be killed, but it is up to an Islamic government to execute the punishment. However, if a lover of the Prophet kills a blasphemer extra-judicially, as per Islamic jurisprudence, the killer is not executed.” According to SAMIR, Qadri also called for the execution of people who violate the rules for fasting during Ramadan.
Growing Influence
As Dawat-e-Islami grows in influence, it continues to shape the lives of its followers through a wide array of programs and initiatives. The group operates the Madani Channel, broadcasting in multiple languages including Urdu, Arabic, English, and Bengali. It also runs religious schools under the name Dar-ul-Madinah, with over 153 campuses worldwide, and a chain of Islamic institutes called Jamia-tul-Madina, which are spread across Pakistan, Bangladesh, and as far as Spain and the United States. Its educational network has influenced tens of thousands of students, raising concerns about what messages are being imparted to the next generation of Muslims.
But Dawat-e-Islami’s reach extends beyond classrooms and TV channels. Faran Jeffery, the deputy director of Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism (ITCT), reports the group holds massive religious gatherings, drawing huge crowds in both South Asian countries and Western nations. Financing these events is reportedly made possible by generous donations from followers. The organization also runs an online platform for Islamic studies and operates the Faizan Global Relief Foundation, a charitable arm that extends its influence even further.
Now it’s Greece’s turn to confront Dawat-e-Islami’s expansion. The organization operates at least a dozen religious centers across the country. Paul Antonopoulos, a reporter for the Greek City Times, described to FWI Dawat-e-Islami’s growing presence since 2021: “Their activities revolve around proselytism, protests, and public celebrations,” he said. “These actions are an affront to a country like Greece, which is over 90 percent Christian and has the historical memory of defending against Islam, such as the Battle of Mu’tah in 629, being occupied by Ottoman Muslims for four hundred years, and being the victims of genocide perpetrated by the Turks in 1913 to 1923.”
In his view, Dawat-e-Islami is more than just a religious group; it is politically active, pushing its version of South Asian politics into the Greek public sphere. By protesting the Indian Embassy over the Kashmir issue, Dawat-e-Islami is not only promoting its religious agenda but also seeking to influence Greece’s foreign policy. The group’s leadership even visited Cyprus in August, continuing its efforts to spread its message and radicalize followers.
The presence of Dawat-e-Islami in Greece, combined with the broader context of Islamic migration, poses a significant challenge for a nation that has long been wary of external religious and political influences, especially from Turkey. As Marie-Athena Papathanasiou, a lawyer with a Ph.D. in international law, points out, Dawat-e-Islami ideologues have already committed atrocities in other countries. “Dawat-e-Islami is a national security threat to Greece, considering their actions in other countries,” she said, adding that the group’s ideology and activities should force Greek leaders to drastically change the country’s immigration policies.
Papathanasiou warns of the existential threat posed by mass Islamic immigration to Greece, which has been accompanied by the rise of radical organizations like Dawat-e-Islami. “Islamic migration disguised as refugee rights will result in large, demanding Islamic communities that seek to impose their customs and subvert European life,” she told FWI. “Given Greece’s demographic collapse, the influx of Muslims could eventually lead to Greeks becoming a minority in their own country.”
