What do you mean by elementary and open-minded ??
Fiqh can get very complicated, once you get into the nitty gritty.
Tableegh have simplified it to make it more universal. They also avoid scholar debates on fiqh.
Ritual in general is an important part of Islam, Namaz being most important. Actually Namaz is the dividing line between Muslim and NonMuslim.
The cream of approved "Muslim" intelligentsia in India and Pakistan now seems to be the "intellectuals" of the Tableeghi Jamaat.
Not true for Pakistan. I told you this before, the most authoritative voices of Islam in Pakistan, like Mufti Taqi Usmani, are Deobandi. Maulana Tariq Jameel is Tableeghi, but that is not all he is.
Yes, I too am sure there were some Taliban or TJ types who accused these philosophers, scientists and medicine men as heretics.
Taliban and Tableegh are two totally different groups. Taliban is a government and movement in Afghanistan, Tableegh cut across all ideological lines. I have even seen Shias sitting with them. Few months ago, I met one Farsiwan from Afghanistan sitting with them, I asked him alot of questions and learned alot.
In India in the last 15 years the TJ has created an atmosphere where many Muslims have taken to wear the burqa and have a beard which they didn't before. It's overpowering.
That is the power of Islam, not Tableegh. They don't do anything special. Give talks, do zikr, and read Quran, nothing extraordinary from other groups.
It is when the people's heart change to be receptive to deen, they don beard and niqab. Beard is sunnah of the prophet saws, and niqab is the naafil of his wives, the mothers of believers.
Every Muslim aspires to those examples.
A person becomes a muslim or non muslim based on his beliefs and not on his political idelogy
Put in the best way I have seen.