As the investigation of the Keystone Cops terrorist attempts in London and Glasgow proceeds, the plotters are not likely to turn out to be Al Qaeda members. However, they are likely to be Takfiri Salafists–muslims sympathetic to the vision of Osama Bin Laden and his number two, Ayman Zawahiri. Pat Lang, a scholar in his own right, first introduced me to this concept. We need to understand why medical doctors would try to make car bombs (plus we should also now appreciate that just because you are a brain surgeon you don’t necessarily know the first thing about explosives.) To understand this term I would direct you first to an excellent overview written by Trevor Stanley. Stanley defines four critical terms–Kufr – Kaffir – Takfir – Takfiri. The root word, k-f-r means:
Kufr
Unbelief (in Islam) – literally, ingratitude.
kafir
An infidel (non-Muslim).
takfir
Excommunication; declaring a person or group of people non-Muslim.
In mainstream Sunni Islam, it is considered wrong to engage in takfir. Sunni Islam has a general reluctance to spread fitna (sow dissension) or ‘backbite’. Furthermore, to declare takfir
is to pre-empt Allah’s judgement. The Muslim who considers another’s
actions to be wrong may say so, but will stop far short of declaring
that person an apostate from the faith. Similarly, there is a
reluctance to resist a leader who prays and does not restrict the
observance of the faith.
Even qualified mainstream religious scholars are reluctant to declare takfir except in particularly egregious cases.
Some radical groups have broken this taboo.
Takfiri
Those who excommunicate, or ‘declare kufr‘, mainstream Muslim individuals, societies and leaders.
Although nominally
Sunni, takfiris reject major aspects of mainstream Sunni religion. They
are also apt to reject components of society, culture and law in Muslim
countries, which they consider to have slipped back into a pre-Islamic
state of pagan ignorance (jahiliyya). Unsurprisingly, takfiris often support militancy against their regimes.
(Stanley’s full piece is at this link.)
After you have absorbed that you should read the following commentary by Hassan Butt. Butt was a member, until recently, of a group of Takfiri Salafists. Butt writes:
When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British
Jihadi Network – a series of British Muslim terrorist groups linked by
a single ideology – I remember how we used to laugh in celebration
whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts
of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign
policy.
By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this “Blair’s bombs” line did our propaganda work for us.
More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.
The attempts to cause mass destruction in London and Glasgow are
so reminiscent of other recent British Islamic extremist plots that
they are likely to have been carried out by my former peers.
Butt’s complete piece is found here.
They do not hate us because we love freedom. They do not hate us because we have stupid policies. They hate us, and other muslims, because we are sinners. Butt’s analysis is spot on. He concludes:
Crucially, the Muslim community in Britain must slap itself awake
from its state of denial and realise there is no shame in admitting the
extremism within our families, communities and worldwide
co-religionists.
If our country is going to take on radicals and violent
extremists, Muslim scholars must go back to the books and come forward
with a refashioned set of rules and a revised understanding of the
rights and responsibilities of Muslims whose homes and souls are firmly
planted in what I’d like to term the Land of Co-existence.
And when this new theological territory is opened up, Western
Muslims will be able to liberate themselves from defunct models of the
world, rewrite the rules of interaction and perhaps we will discover
that the concept of killing in the name of Islam is no more than an
anachronism.
Butt is worth listening to if we are to understand what motivates some educated young muslims to do stupid, terrible things.
