The group was founded in 1984 by a group of four young Muslims studying at the
University of Kingston in
Surrey who were dissatisfied by what they saw as "a lack of dynamism" in the South Asian
ahl-e-Hadith movement in Britain. M. Munawar Ali (Abu Muntasir) has been its head for some years.
Ed Husain describes JIMAS as being known to be
Wahhabi, although Gilliat-Ray says the group as providing platforms for prominent
Muslim Brotherhood speakers such as
Yusuf al-Qaradawi. After the
9/11 attacks, according to Gilliat-Ray, the group changed its focus, becoming more interested in "grassroots engagement with 'ordinary' British Muslims" and moved away from the
salafist ideology. Over the past twenty or so years JIMAS has splintered; mostly dividing over a pro/anti-Saudi dichotomy. Those that stayed loyal to the purist Salafi idea of remaining loyal to the Muslim rulers, such as the
Saudi ruling family, formed a group called OASIS (Organization of ahl al Sunnah Islamic Societies) led by Abu Khadeejah and
Dawud Burbank ==References==