Takfiris and their enablers: Muslims and non-Muslims

Yusuf Dhia-Allah

Shawwal 27, 1437 2016-08-01

Special Reports

by Yusuf Dhia-Allah (Special Reports, Crescent International Vol. 45, No. 6, Shawwal, 1437)

Takfirism is not a new phenomenon; its precursor was the Khawarij. Today, the takfiris receive money, weapons, training and support from many regimes, some even carrying Muslim names.

In the last ten days of Ramadan, Muslims traditionally engage in increased acts of ‘ibadah and spiritual activities. This year, however, the final days were marred by horrific violence in disparate parts of the Muslim world. From Istanbul to Dhaka, and from Baghdad to Madinah, Qatif and Jeddah, there were mind-boggling acts of terror and violence unleashed against innocent people. On July 23, a similar terrorist act in the heart of Kabul targeted Afghanistan’s Hazara Shi‘i community killing more than 80 and injuring several hundred others. The most horrific act was perpetrated on July 3 (28th of Ramadan) in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad where nearly 300 people were killed by a suicide bomber. People were out shopping for Eid al-Fitr as the month-long fast was nearing its end when they were targeted by this dastardly crime.

Instead of celebrating Eid al-Fitr, Muslims in Baghdad and the surrounding localities mourned their dead holding candle-light vigils. The takfiri terrorist group, Da‘ish (aka ISIS/ISIL) claimed responsibility for the Baghdad attack as it did for Istanbul and Dhaka. Whether these terrorist acts are interrelated is not the issue; the common thread between them is the mindset that considers killing innocent human being as justifiable for whatever demented reason they may have.

Who are the takfiris, where did they come from, and how can they indulge in such horrific acts while calling themselves Muslims? Does Islam permit the killing of innocent people, whether Muslim or not?

As if Muslims did not have enough problems already — mass poverty and hunger, gross inequalities; terrible injustices; and incompetence and mismanagement of the rulers — they are now faced with a new, ugly phenomenon called terrorism. Individuals and groups have taken it upon themselves to act as accusers, prosecutors, judges and jurors and not only denounce others they disagree with as “kafirs” but also become executioners. Often, they do not even know whom they are killing: completely innocent people are blown to pieces.

Their favorite mode of operations is to plant bombs in crowded places, or become suicide bombers by exploding their vests. Is suicide permitted in Islam? Obviously, there are people leading them to commit such crimes. This will be considered shortly but we must first ask the question: who has the authority to declare war? Islam has very specific rules; not every individual is entitled to assume this responsibility. The declaration of war is a very grave responsibility not to be taken lightly. Only a legitimately established Islamic authority can do so. There are specific circumstances in which this can be done. “And fight in the cause of Allah against those that have waged war against you, but do not commit aggression — for verily, Allah does not love aggressors,” declares the noble Qur’an (2:190).

Islam lays great emphasis on the sanctity of human life and the Qur’an states quite clearly that the killing of even one human being without just cause (such as for committing murder or spreading sedition in society) is like killing the whole of humanity (5:32).

Similarly, there are many hadiths that prohibit one Muslim from calling another Muslim a kafir. Abu Dawud narrates from ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar (ra), the following hadith of the noble Messenger (pbuh), “If a Muslim calls another Muslim a kafir, then if the accused is a kafir, then let it be so [that is, the accusation will stand]; otherwise, he [the accuser] himself is a kafir” (Book of Sunnah, Vol. 3, p. 484). Along the same lines, another hadith narrated in al-Bukhari’s Book of Ethics, from Abu Dharr (ra) reported that the noble Messenger (pbuh) said, “No man accuses another man of being a sinner, or of being a kafir, but it reflects back on him if the accused is not what he is accused of” (Book of Ethics, Book 78, Chapter 44).

Together with the act of takfir, there is another, equally dangerous trend that has emerged in recent years: that of killing those who are branded kafirs. There is absolutely no permission for such conduct in Islam. History bears witness that Muslims ruled many lands from Grenada to India where the overwhelming majority was non-Muslim but there was not even a hint that Muslims should kill them because they are not Muslims. So how have some people calling themselves Muslims arrived at the conclusion that it is permissible to kill fellow Muslims after branding them as “kafirs”?

True, in Islamic history we had the phenomenon of the Khawarij but as the name suggests, they were considered “outsiders” to the din of Islam. Their conduct was extremely destructive leading to the martyrdom of Imam Ali (ra) at the hands of one these deviants. No Islamic scholar ever extolled such conduct as virtuous.

Today, unfortunately there are people masquerading as scholars who provide “religious” justification for such deviant behavior. This is done at the behest of their masters. The perpetrators are often ignorant of Islamic principles, otherwise they would not indulge in such horrific acts. These “scholars for dollars,” or court clergy, would do anything to appease their masters. Their demented thinking has created a situation where acts of terror are being perpetrated and justified in the name of Islam.

The chief culprit in this crime against Islam is the Saudi regime dominated by the Najdi Bedouins. Not only do their court preachers provide “religious” justification where none exists for such abhorrent conduct but the regime has actively promoted such groups. For instance, in 2013, a letter marked “Top Secret” was sent by ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Ali al-Rumayzan, director at the Saudi Interior Ministry to General Saud al-Thunayyan at the Clandestine Office in the Interior Ministry. Al-Rumayzan said that a deal had been struck with rapists, murderers, and drug smugglers in Saudi prisons who had been sentenced to death. In lieu of commuting their sentences, these criminals were to be sent for “Jihad in Syria”! English translation of the original Arabic is provided below (the letter itself appears in the accompanying graphic),

It is quite revealing that throughout its miserable existence, the Saudi regime has never helped the Palestinians overthrow the yoke of Zionist occupation. In fact, Bani Saud are on kissing terms with their Zionist cousins with much intermingling of blood as well between them. Their alliance has now become public knowledge with officials from the two regimes openly embracing each other at various forums.

Bani Saud’s venom and hatred is reserved exclusively for Muslims they disagree with. And since that constitutes the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world, it means the Najdi Bedouins are at war with Islam and Muslims. In the past, the Najdi Bedouins were able to hoodwink innocent Muslims into believing that they are “pious” because of their control of the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah (the Haramayn). Their own conduct, however, has exposed them to be frauds and unfit to administer the Haramayn.

The picture of the takfiris would not be complete without a reference to the support they receive from the West. While publicly proclaiming to be fighting them the reality is that Western regimes through their intelligence agencies are intimately involved in supporting, arming, and training the takfiris. This was graphically exposed in June 2015 when a Swedish Muslim was put on trial in London, England for joining a terrorist group in Syria. His defence counsel asked that a representative of the British intelligence agency appear in court to testify why the agency was supporting the same group that his client was accused of joining? The British government promptly dropped all charges.

The British are not the only culprits. All Western intelligence agencies as well as the Zionists are up to their necks in the conspiracy to support the terrorists against innocent Muslims. ISIS is the present-day reincarnation of the Taliban of the 1990s. Terrorism, then as today, is aimed at those who are watching — to socially condition their behavior — not at the immediate victims who either get blown up, murdered, or maimed. A large number of this audience is Muslims who only have a cultural and ritual attachment to Islam, and hence are easily conscripted into the West’s secular humanism (which only has a private space for religion at best or rejects religion altogether at worst), especially as they see their own “scholars” rubber-stamping the crimes of rapists, murderers, head-choppers, and organ-eaters. The main objective of the imperialist and Zionist choreographers of terrorism in our world today is to demonstrate to those watching that Islam as a state, as a system, as a compendium of laws and morals, as a societal infrastructure, and as a medium to deliver social justice to the oppressed and dislocated masses is inconsistent with civil society.

To illustrate this in the graphic detail that is beamed into everyone’s living rooms 24/7, the most heinous anti-humanity crimes have been manufactured for the purpose of affixing upon them the label of Islam, Muhammad, and the Muslims. For good measure, just to keep it real, some willing “Muslim” actors (who are already on tenuous footing with their own people due to their oppression and profligacy, and hence open to any kind of suggestion so long as it ensures their survival at the helm of power and command) have been thrown into this script. This is the main reason why the Arabian rulers — puppets all of them — have been employed to sponsor the takfiri offshoots of their tried and true progenitors in al-Qaeda and the Taliban, who together served their purpose well.