Shah Faesal

During his current go to to Tehran, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval pressured the significance of Iran and India working collectively to advertise stability in Afghanistan and finish Takfiri terrorism within the nation. The delegation-level talks occurred forward of the upcoming assembly of the Foreign Ministers of the SCO in Goa and encompassed a broad vary of subjects, together with financial, political, and safety ties, in addition to key regional and international developments. Doval additionally met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian. 

What is Takfiri ideology? 

Takfir is an accusation of unbelief or a declaration of apostasy which results in the ex-communication of one other Muslim. It is the observe of 1 Muslim declaring one other Muslim as an infidel, which some extremist teams use to prescribe the demise penalty for apostates. In the previous takfiri fatwahs have led to the assassination of the Egyptian President Anwar Saadat, Governor of Punjab Pakistan Salman Taseer, and demise threats towards authors Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen. A Tamil Nadu-based radical Muslim group declared India’s former President APJ Abdul Kalam as an apostate and fatwas are repeatedly given in India to expel Muslims from the ‘Islamic community’ on the costs of blasphemy and apostasy. 

The guide Issues within the Jurisprudence of Jihad (Mas’ail Fi Fiqh al-Jihad) by Abu ‘Abdullah al-Muhajir, one of many main ideologues of ISIS, was probably the most vital treatises in current occasions to deploy Takfir as a theological and authorized argument for justifying violence towards Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Muhajir notably was a jehadi-Salafi from Egypt who influenced the previous chief of al Qaeda Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.  

The idea of takfir, which led to the therapy of apostasy and blasphemy as critical offenses, originated with the Khawarij sect within the seventh century CE. The Khawarij had been the primary to declare takfir towards fellow Muslims, appropriating the correct to take action and introducing extrajudicial killings of fellow Muslims. This marked the start of Islamic extremism. Over time, the notion of takfir was additional developed by a number of students and theologians. In the thirteenth century, Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyya distinguished between man-made and divine legislation, calling on Muslims dwelling below the previous emigrate to lands ruled by Shari’a. He labeled unbelievers into totally different teams, together with apostates and those that did not carry out their spiritual duties. Ibn Taymiyya expanded on the notion of takfir by arguing that any failure of non secular obligation was an offense and that Muslims who failed of their spiritual obligations had been worse than unbelievers or members of different spiritual teams.

In the 18th century, the idea of takfir was additional developed by Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, the founding father of the Wahhabi doctrine. He aimed to purify the Islamic group by asking Muslims to return to the methods of the Prophet and his Companions, rejecting the selections of the 4 Sunni faculties and any consensus issued after the demise of the Prophet’s Companions. He deemed Muslims who adopted traditions that emerged after the primary era of Islam as polytheists.’

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval calls on Iran President Ebrahim Raisi

The twentieth century noticed an extra evolution of takfir as Muslim-majority states started to undertake Western fashions of legislation. Sayyid Qutb, a number one member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, used the notion of latest jahiliyya to denounce Muslim societies and governments that adopted the Western mannequin. Similarly, Abul A‘la Maududi, founding father of the political group Jamaat-e-Islami, condemned Muslim majority states for borrowing constitutions, legal guidelines, and ideas from nonbelievers.

Maududi’s concepts have been cited by militant leaders, corresponding to ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who appointed himself a Caliph and referred to Maududi’s notion of a pan-Islamic state. ISIS has repeatedly drawn on Maududi’s claims that sovereignty is for God solely and that full citizenship of an Islamic state is just accessible to Muslims. Terror teams like Ansar Ghazwatul Hind additionally espoused the identical trigger. This has led to the persecution of non secular minorities and makes an attempt to crush any Islamic theology deviating from the ISIS mannequin. This extremist use of takfir can be exemplified in ISIS’s marketing campaign towards the Sunni Awakening in Iraq.

Driven by this ideology, Daesh has been focusing on Muslims as its main victims since 2014 in international locations like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Its definition of kufr (unbelief, infidelity) goes past non-Muslims to incorporate Muslims, who’re thought-about incidental disbelievers. 

Daesh has a robust presence in Eastern and Northern Afghanistan, notably in Nangarhar, which is thought to be its base within the war-torn nation. Since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021, there have been frequent clashes between the Emirate and the IS-Khorasan with ISKP launching a number of terror assaults towards Taliban forces, journalists, civil society members, and the Shia Hazara group throughout Afghanistan. The Hazaras, a traditionally persecuted Shia sect, share a commonality of religion with Iran’s clerical institution and lots of Hazaras have fled to Iran because of their persecution by the Taliban up to now. However, of their second coming Taliban assured the Hazara group of their security throughout Shia spiritual festivities. 

Movement towards Takfir

The basic query on the core of thought is ‘Who is a true Muslim’? The takfiri reply to that is dictated by an especially literal and inflexible interpretation of Islam.

However, there have additionally been voices from throughout the Muslim world which have condemned the observe of Takfir. In July 2005 King Abdullah II of Jordan led a global Islamic convention of the world’s prime most Islamic students to deliberate on the problem of Takfir. The final result of this convention grew to become often known as Three Points of the Amman Message which included recognizing the validity of all 8 mathhabs (authorized faculties) of Sunni, Shia, and Ibadhi Islam; of conventional Islamic Theology (Ash’arism); of Islamic Mysticism (Sufism), and true Salafi thought. It was additionally determined that ignorant and excessive fatwas issued on such contentious topics ought to be stopped.  

While many Qur’anic verses point out unbelievers, the Qur’an itself doesn’t outline apostasy. The definition of apostasy in Islam is all the time offered by people. According to a number of Qur’anic verses, solely God holds the correct to declare takfir, as solely He can decide a believer’s standing, and this judgment will happen within the hereafter. Consequently, takfir declarations by people represent a non secular sin below Shari’a legislation.

NSA Ajit Doval assembly Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani

Indirect prohibition of takfir could be present in numerous Qur’anic verses, corresponding to 6:108 and 4:94. These verses emphasize the significance of not insulting different religions, because it may result in retaliation, and warning believers towards swiftly judging others’ religion. Thus, using takfir by extremist teams like ISIS contradicts the teachings of the Prophet and the Qur’an.

There is a large physique of Islamic scholarship that implies that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) warned Muslims towards declaring somebody a disbeliever for committing a sin or expelling them from Islam because of their actions. These teachings, present in numerous hadiths, corresponding to Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, and Sunan An-Nasa’i, present that the Prophet not solely prohibited takfir but in addition regarded such declarations as sinful. ―When an individual calls his brother (in Islam) a disbeliever, one among them will definitely deserve the title. If the addressee is in order he has asserted, the disbelief of the person is confirmed, however whether it is unfaithful, then it’s going to revert to him (narrated by Al-Bukhari and Muslim). Noted Islamic scholar Javed Ahmed Ghamdi views takfir towards the spirit of the Quran and counsel that nobody has a proper to name a Muslim an unbeliever except that Muslim makes a wilful public announcement about abandoning the religion. After the assault on Salman Rushdie in New York final yr, Secretary-General of the Muslim World League Muhammad bin Abdul Karim al-Issa mentioned that the violence was “a crime that Islam does not accept”

Takfir in India: Brian Didier in his chapter within the edited quantity Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on Takfir explores the wedge between Wahabi teams and the Shamsiya sufis in Lakshadweep Island. Shamsiya sufis have been condemned as heretics and vilified. The majority of Indian Muslims belong to the Sunni sect which is additional divided into Wahabi and Barelvi factions. In the previous, there have been frequent cases of Wahabi preachers declaring Barelvis as apostates for grave worship and different intercessionary practices. Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, a Deobandi jurist had declared that the views held by Ahmad Raza Khan made him a Kafir (disbelievers). 

Likewise, Barelvis have branded Wahabis as Kafirs for disrespecting Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). The founding father of the Barelvi sect Ahmad Raza Khan is reported to have mentioned in his well-known phrases that the class of ‘Murtad Munafiq (apostate and hypocrite) includes Wahhabis, Rafidis (Shias), Qadianis, and Naturi (Rationalists). Both Wahabis and Barelvis in turn declare Shias, Bhai’i, and Ahmedia as apostates, refusing to supply prayers of their mosques and prohibiting marital relations with them. These statements are a typical observe even at present and the social media in India is rife with takfiri hate speeches given throughout Friday sermons by Moulvis of 1 sect whereas claiming supremacy over one other. 

It is towards this backdrop that Ajit Doval’s flagging the problem of Takfiri terrorism through the current Iran go to turns into vital. India and Iran share frequent safety pursuits in Afghanistan. Both India and Iran are involved about the specter of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan, notably from teams corresponding to ISIS, which have focused each international locations up to now. India has the second largest inhabitants of Muslims on the earth and round 13% of Indian Muslims determine with the Shia sect. In the previous, there have been fixed makes an attempt to radicalize and recruit gullible Muslim children into international terrorist organizations with many touchdown within the frontrunner takfiri group ISIS. Pakistan has witnessed extraordinarily excessive ranges of violence together with suicide bombings towards minority Muslim sects which have been declared to be heretical, Shias being the primary victims of such violence. This can’t be allowed to occur in India. 

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India’s management in combating takfiri extremism in Afghanistan in partnership with Iran will thus not solely guarantee sectarian bonhomie inside our borders however can be sure to generate lots of goodwill throughout the Islamic world that has been devastated by takfiri jihad lately. 

(Shah Faesal is an IAS Officer from AGMUT Cadre, a Fulbright Scholar, and an Edward S Mason Fellow from Harvard University. Views are private.)