SIMI have been influenced by Deobandi Islam which is a Muslim revivalist movement that started in India in 1879. It is perhaps most famous in the west as the philosophy of the past Taliban government in Afghanistan. Its slogan is "Allah is our Lord, Qur’an is our constitution, Muhammad is our leader, Jihad is our way and Shahadah is our desire". SIMI believes that Osama bin Laden is an outstanding example of a true Mujahid, who has undertaken Jihad on behalf of the 'ummah'. They also believe the 9/11 attacks were by Israel's Mossad.
Their ideology stands accused by certain watchdog organisations as diametrically opposed to all "un-Islamic" streams of thought, including Hinduism and a secular government as practiced in India. They are also against Western values [3]. Among its various objectives, SIMI aims to counter what it believes is the increasing moral degeneration, sexual anarchy in the Indian society as also the ‘insensitiveness’ of a ‘decadent’ west. SIMI maintains that the concepts of secularism, democracy and nationalism, keystones of the Indian Constitution, are antithetical to Islam. They aim to restore the supremacy of Islam through the resurrection of the Khilafat, emphasis on the Muslim Ummah and the waging of Jihad [4].
