Takfir wa Hijra

Frank Anderson is an old friend and colleague who offers this additional thought on my earlier post.

Poat Lang

""Takfir wa Hijra" is the extremist splinter from the Egyptian MB whose late 20th century ideological/theological reference is Sayyid Qutb.  ("Takfir" refers to Qutb's "doctrine" that those with whom he disagreed could be/should be declared "kufra" irrespective of their adherance to Islam in any form but that which he defined as genuine.)  They are the folk that assassinated Sadat, exported the group that did WTC bombing number, and one gave us the " blind sheikh" Omar Abd Ar-Rahman's plot to blow up the UN.  Their most prominent leader in exile (now that the sheikh lives in the Metropolitan Corrections Center) is Ayman Zawahiri, popularly known as Bin Ladin's "Number Two."  I have hunch that Zawahiri, in fact, has always been the real top man in A-Qa'idah, using Bin Ladin's name and money to build and motivate the movement.  Al-Qa'idah recruiters use Sayyid Qutb's books/language, not that of any "old fashioned" Najdi ulema, in talking folk into the jihad against jews and crusaders (and Shia').  I think "takfiri" is a more accurate label than "salafi" or "wahabi" for the movement that we now are confronting."

Frank Anderson