Dawat-e-Islami was founded in the early 80s by Mualana Ilyas Atar Qadri. He started wearing green turban out of the love of Prophet’s Tomb (PBUH) which is also green in colour. He also asked fellow Muslims to wear Turban as a measure of love. It must be noted that our Prophet has also has worn green coloured turban (evidence: Green turban associated with him is at Badshahi masjid museum).

Dawat-e-Islami believes in strict code of conduct for its adherents. It wishes to see people praying on proper time, paying their zakat, and all the Islamic injunctions that are part of our collective heritage (and tradition). It also feels that the moral backwardness of the Muslim Ummah is due the lack of following of the tradition of tolerance, positive thinking, obeying commands of parents, and respecting elders as well as young ones.

Dawat-e-Islami is presently working in over 60 countries and they regularly send out Madni Kaflas (their internal term for groups of people visiting places to spread the message of Islam). Their main points of interaction are South Africa, Dubai, Mozambique, India, and Central Asian states.

People dis-agree with lot of things which Dawat-e-Islami people do. For one, there is a strong disagreement over the Madni Munaas walk on 9th of Rabi-ul-Awal. As these are only very young kids, people say the entire exercise is un-necessary. Another criticism on them is why they wear Green and not white or black turban. Well, every school has its uniform. Why KGS students don’t wear the uniform of St. Michael’s School and vice versa?

People also associate Dawat-e-Islami with Sunni Tehreek, which is a militant form of Ahl-e-Sunnah Jamat and is just like Wahabi-led Sipah Sahaba. Although Dawat-e-Islami is a Sunni group it has no relation with Sunni Tehreek and its founder, Saleem Qadri, actually broke away from the main group to form his own party.