National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ; ; Jamā‘at at-Tawḥīd al-Waṭanīyah, "National Monotheism Organisation") is a Sri Lankan Islamist jihadist militant group implicated in the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings. It is believed to have ties to the Islamic State (ISIL). President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena banned National Thowheed Jamath on 27 April 2019 and designated it as a terrorist organisation along with Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.
Aims
The group promotes an "Islamist terrorist ideology". The director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism said that it "aims to spread the global jihadist movement to Sri Lanka and to create hatred, fear, and divisions in society."
The NTJ believes that the world was made solely for Muslims and is against other religions. They also do not consider Sufis as Muslims believing them to be Kafirs that should be killed, and they have carried out attacks against Sufi mosques. Since 2016 they began supporting the ideology of Islamic State preaching that all "non-Muslims" must be killed for a Muslim takeover of Sri Lanka.
History
The NTJ was founded by Moulvi Zahran Hashim in the exclusively Muslim town of Kattankudy, which has been called a "fertile ground for extremism" and has seen Arabisation and the spread of Wahhabism since the 1980s with funding from gulf nations.
While Zahran was actively propagating radical Islamism as far as 2013, he only began propagating violent extremism in 2016. However, according to Sufi leaders of Kattankudy Zahran did preach violence early on and even began publishing a magazine from 2013 which had calls for attacks on Sufis. It was from 2016 that Zahran preached about a "Muslim takeover" of Sri Lanka by killing all "non-Muslims" and demanded that the hosting of the Sri Lankan National flag be stopped as it is a threat to the Islamic State. In 2016 Zahran also began to preach against Catholics and Christmas.
The NTJ's leadership had been condemned by several Sri Lankan Muslim organisations in 2016 for advocating extreme fundamentalist indoctrination of children and for clashes with Buddhist monks.
During the 2015 presidential election, Zahran campaigned against the then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa and in favour of Maithripala Sirisena. During the 2015 General Election, however, he used the votes of his 2,000–3,000 followers to make Muslim politicians from both major and minor parties in the Eastern Province to sign an agreement which included a ban on music, gender segregation in seating arrangements, refusal to support "moderate" Muslims and Sufis as well as a condition saying the political parties should support groups such as the National Thawheed Jama'ath. Those that signed the agreement include Shafi Salley, Shibly Farook, M.L.A.M. Hizbullah, A. L. M. Ruby and Abdul Rahman. However Zahran worked against Hizbullah after his supporters played music at one of his events by citing music as Haram.
The group also terrorised the Sufi Muslim population in Kattankudy, who were considered as Kafirs by extremists and, according to Zahran, all Kafirs must be killed according to Sharia law. Sufi mosques were shot and Sufis were targeted by a sword-wielding mob led by Zahran in 2017. Despite complaints by Muslim organisations, the government failed to take proper action against Zahran and the NTJ.
It was later revealed that the police had in fact been trying to ban the organisation and take down their websites since 2017. However the Attorney General's department did not take several letters by the Terrorism Investigation Division seriously and the CDs sent by the TID containing Zahran's lectures were given to lesser officials to watch by Senior State Counsel Malik Aziz who ordered them to compile a report.
The NTJ members included two associates of Zahran who were principal and teacher of Muslim schools respectively and were in charge of looking over his mosques. A NTJ member was part of the parliament staff. 64 Sri Lankan MPs have also accused the former Muslim cabinet minister Rishad Bathiudeen of backing the terrorists. The allegations included supply of empty shell casings to a factory owned by one of the bombers and Rishad's Moulvi advisor being arrested on suspicion of being a terrroist. Bathiudeen rejected ever having such an advisor and rejected asking for release of any of the suspects. K. D. N. Ranjith Asoka, Secretary Ministry of Industry & Commerce, rejected that Rishad requested any shell casings to be supplied to the bomber's factory.