The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) is a banned Islamic fundamentalist group that advocates Islamic revolution in India.  By all accounts SIMI is anti-Western and anti-Hindu, and openly supports violent "jihad" in India.  SIMI has been linked to many terrorist incidents in India in the past few years.  <P><br /><br />SIMI was founded in Uttar Pradesh, on April 25, 1977.  According to its founder, Dr. Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi, at its inception, SIMI was purely a student organization dedicated to the promotion of Islam through educational means.  Whether this statement is entirely factual is debatable, but it is clear that the group has morphed into a much more radical and extremist organization than its founder intended in 1977. <P> <br /><br />By the 1990s, SIMI had been hijacked by extremist elements in Indian-Muslim society, and the resultant group was both militant and dangerous.  SIMI now advocated "jihad" and openly discussed the need for a "worldwide caliphate" to replace secular or non-Muslim governments.  More disturbingly, Indian security sources reported that SIMI had established links with experienced militant groups such as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Lakshar-e-Taiba, as well as the Pakistani Secret Service (ISI). <P><br /><br />The group has been held responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in India.  From March to August 2000, SIMI was responsible for a series of bombings in Uttar Pradesh that killed several civilians.  Later that year, SIMI members were suspected of inciting communal riots in Maharashtra.  By 2001, dozens of SIMI members had either been killed or arrested over suspected violent activity, and by December 2001, the group had been banned under India's Prevention of Terrorism Act.  <P><br /><br />Despite the ban, SIMI has continued a course of violence.  Members are suspected of being behind twin bombings in Mumbai in January 2003.  And most recently, Indian police arrested former SIMI members for their role in a failed attack on the disputed Ramjanmabhumi complex in Ayodhya.  <P><br />