Takfir wal-Hijra

Takfir wal-Hijra (Arabic تكفير والهجرة - "Excommunication and Exodus") is a Muslim extremist group which emerged in Egypt in the 1960s as an offshoot of Muslim Brotherhood. Today Takfir wal-Hijra has members or supporters in several other countries, allied to Al-Qaeda Fact|date=March 2007. In Spain the group is also known as "Martyrs for Morocco".

Members of the group are radical Islamists who are not bound by the usual religious constraints. They adopt non-Islamic appearances such as shaving their beard and wearing a tie in order to blend into crowds and make themselves hard to detect even to other Muslims. They can drink alcohol and even eat pork to deceive their enemies. They believe that any means justify the end and, that killing other Muslims can be justified in their cause and that Western society is heathen and it is their duty to destroy it. [ [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/etc/script.html "Al Qaeda's New Front" "Frontline" PBS News, 25 January 2005] ]

Little is known about the current organization or hierarchy of the group. Several groups which adhere to the same ideology have possibly used the name independently of each other.

The meaning of Takfir wal-Hijra

The word Takfir means to judge somebody to be a kafir, based on their behavior resembling the behavior of infidels. So to commit Takfir is to claim that a society has deviated from the teachings of Islam, and therefore label it as a kafir society or as an infidel society. Hijra means flight or emigration or leaving; thus, if a society is pronounced to be an infidel society, the members of Takfir wal-Hijra see it as their duty to separate from it and conspire and act to destroy and conquer it.

History

The group began in the 1960s as a splinter group of Muslim Brotherhood, but did not gain international prominence until 1977. The group was at first seen as a marginalized millenarian sect of little consequence.

In 1977 agricultural engineer Shukri Mustafa became the group's leader. He had begun to build the group after release from prison in 1971. He emphasized a complete break from all of Muslim society which he deemed kafir. Members were therefore to live in an alternative community, or even in caves in upper Egypt. Muslims who felt alienated or marginalized in modern Egypt joined this group for a sense of community. A surprising number of women joined, as he offered them a break from their responsibilities as daughters by deeming their families to be kafir. Although within the group, he had tremendous authority by setting himself up as a kind of Mahdi claimant who could arrange marriages and forbid all outside contact. These activities caused lawsuits from the families of women who joined the group.

In 1977 the group decided to battle mainstream society by kidnapping a Muslim cleric. After Mustafa was captured and executed in 1978 former members were linked to the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The ideology Mustafa helped formulate became an influence on later Takfiri groups.

Ideology

The group has a radical neo-Khawarij ideology, of which Salafism is the binding factor. Mainstream adherents of Salafism reject the extreme position of the takfiris, denouncing them as a modern day version of the Khawarij.

Takfir wal-Hijra takes fundamentalism a step further than most Islamic fundamentalist groups. It advocates armed battle against Jews, Christians and apostate Muslims to restore the unity of the Islamic world order (ummah). The "ummah" is to be led by a Caliph, who rules according to the Sharia. The group's warriors are allowed to practice something akin to taqiyya. This means they can disguise their true principles for protection of their own faith. This allows them to blend in with Western society and also to disobey all rules of their form of Islam for the goal of destroying Western civilisation from within, a form of antinomianism. According to this ideology, the warriors will be martyrs in Paradise after death.

Takfir wal-Hijra's ideology is so extreme that in 1996 the group plotted to assassinate Osama bin Laden, supposedly for being insufficiently radical. Many also considered the Taliban movement in Afghanistan to be unbelievers.Fact|date=February 2007

Activities

*Takfir wal-Hijra is connected with hit-and-run attacks in Algeria.
*In Sudan in 2000 an alleged member opened fire on a peaceful mosque killing 20. [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/sala.html The Salafist Movement] , "Frontline (PBS)] In Sudan in 2003 members of the group allegedly wrote a death-list containing the names of prominent local politicians and journalists.
*In the autumn of 2004 in Spain a terrorist network was uncovered with suspected links to Takfir wal-Hijra. It had been planning to blow up a Court of Law. It is also alleged that the Madrid bombers had Takfir wal-Hijra connections Fact|date=March 2007.

Alleged members and supporters

International opposition

Takfir wal-Hajra has been designated a terrorist organisation by the European Union. [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_340/l_34020051223en00640066.pdf implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Decision 2005/848/EC (.pdf)] , "Official Journal of the European Union", December 23 2005]

References

("Sources: [http://www.nrc.nl NRC] ; [http://www.planet.nl Planet News] ; [http://forum.politics.be Politics.be] ")