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.
A very interesting personal note from a former jihadi salafist and a nice referance to important words in Islam and keywords to know if you want to understand the salafist ideas. Here is a useful link to texts by salafist ideologues that seems to have been, if not neglected, not prioritized when government institutions have prepared for counter-terrorist strategies. A good read for those who are not to familiar with the ideological thinking of jihadi salafists.
“They do not hate us because we love freedom.”
It depends what you mean with freedom. If by freedom you mean the freedom to be secular and not religious, the freedom and equality for women and the freedom to publish and read what you want then, yes, the jihadi salafists hate us for our love of freedom.
Just to add this is not the only reason why they loath western ideas.
Mr. Johnson.
How governmental of you.
But i will ask one anyway.
You write:
“Butt is worth listening to if we are to understand what motivates some educated young muslims to do stupid, terrible things.”
Let me ask you…what is more important?
Understanding why THEY do “stupid, terrible things”?
Or understanding why so-called educated WESTERNERS do stupid, terrible things.
ALL of the members of this government are “educated”.
All of the members Secret Police of the Permanent Government (of which you were once a member if you are not STILL one) are “educated”.
And yet the United States has produced more unnecessary corpses and completely ruined lives over the last…oh, let’s say 60+ years just to keep things fairly contemporary (I mean, no use crying over OLD spilled milk, right? Or blood.)…than has any nation in the world.
By an order of thousands of times more.
And you sit there signifying (That’s a useful word from the black culture here. YOU know. The ones who AREN’T allowed to be spies?) on a bunch of angry Muslims who may or may not have been literally driven crazy by the events that have taken place in the Middle East and elsewhere under the aegis of the United States over those aforementioned 60+ years?
Please.
You really want to do some good?
Clean up your OWN house.
Please.
AG
Here is another important writing from the so-called “Godfather of Jihad”, Dr. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, and the founder of the predecessor to Al-Qaeda.
.
Throughout the world, there are a complex of root causes for the Jihad against Westerners, but also against other Muslim religious groups. There are ofcourse the religious fanatics in SE Asia and Indonesia, the most populated of Muslim nations. The casus bellum is very often the invasion and occupation of Muslim countries: Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, US bases in Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, strife for independence in Chechnya and the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The Muslim faith and Arab nations are mostly divided, except for moments they unite to counter stupid actions by foreign governments.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."So how is takfir different from apostate? I am apostate (having blasphemed the “Holy Spirit”).
I guess Dave Neiwart would label us just OTHER.
Meaning of kafir? Aren’t kafirs people who are ‘not of the book’ in contrast to people who are ‘of the book’ like Christians and Jews?
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Political party
But Mr Bakri Mohammed, a spokesman for the al-Muhajiroun group , said Mr Butt was no longer linked to the organisation.
“Hassan Butt no longer represents al-Muhajiroun in Pakistan,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
“We are an ideological, political party. We do not recruit people to go and fight on behalf of anybody or to indulge in any military activities.”
Mr Bakri Mohammed , a radical Muslim cleric based in Tottenham, north London, added: “He no longer even exists in our offices in Lahore. “He himself now, I think personally, functions as an individual or has his own organisation.”
‘Secret routes’
Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the self-styled Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, said the interview with Mr Butt was “very worrying and frightening”, although he thought the claims were “more fantasy than realism”.
Citing his return to Britain last month for three weeks, Mr Butt claimed none of the pro-Taleban volunteers were worried about being caught. He said the method he used to enter the country was “irrelevant” but there were many “secret” routes into Britain for use by Muslims.
Shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin said Mr Butt’s comments about a domestic terrorist threat could be “largely fantasising” but his claimed three week stay in the UK raised questions about Britain’s intelligence capabilities.
The shadow home secretary added that he viewed Mr Butt’s remarks as “traitorous”.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."