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| | Inretrospect (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02) |
 | | Bengali peasant support for the various Islamic movements since the early 19th century not only projects the violent, “pre-political” and non-committal aspects of the peasant community, it also suggests how vulnerable Muslim peasants have been to the manipulative leaders who mobilise mass support in the name of Islam or any other ideology. |
 | | The Wahhabi and Faraizi leaders, and especially the most influential Maulana Karamat Ali Jaunpuri (1800-1873), a former Wahhabi-turned-“loyalist” Islamic reformer of the 19th century, brought the syncretistic Bengali Muslims, mainly peasants, into the fold of Sharia-based, orthodox and puritan Islam. |
 | | The Hindu revivalist movements and the anti-Muslim socio-economic and political stand of the bulk of the Hindu elites and middle classes in the 19th and 20th centuries further strengthened the hold of the ulama and their patrons, the ashraf (aristocratic, upper class Muslims), on the Bengali Muslim masses. |
| www.weeklyholiday.net /020802/inret.html (3966 words) |
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