In Continuing the Series on Terrorism...

These Islamist extremists are so far gone that they believe Usama bin Laden should be killed for being too liberal, and that most of the Muslim world should be eliminated.


Takfir wal-Hijra

Takfir wal-Hijra (Arabic تكفير والهجرة - Excommunication and Exodus) is a violent Islamic extremist group who emerged in Egypt in the 1960s. Today Takfir wal-Hijra has members or supporters in several other countries, allied to Al-Qaeda. In Spain the group is also known as Martyrs for Morocco.

Members of the group are radical Islamists who refuse to be bound by the usual Islamic 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.[1]

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

Although the group began in the 1960s it 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 fundamentalist Islamic ideology, of which Salafism is often claimed to be the binding factor. However, mainstream adherents of Salafism reject the extreme position of the takfiris, denouncing them as a modern day version of the Kharijites (distinct from Shiites and Sunnis, the Kharijites rejected and rebelled against the Fourth Caliph, Alī ibn Abī Tālib, who was also the son-in-law of Muhammad). Mainstream Salafists strongly object to takfiris being classified as Salafis. Kharijites and Takfirs sometimes follow an ideology that is not only in violation of the Qur'an, but is so extreme that it is completely at odds with the Qur'an and Hadiths.

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. Although they are Sunnis, the group's warriors are allowed to practice something akin to the Shi'a Islam notion of 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 (Heaven) after death. Note that most Islamic scholars, including Salafi scholars, imams and leaders, have condemned this misinterpretation of the Qur'an and hadiths.
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.


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.[2] 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.


Alleged members and supporters

Shukri Mustafa the group's founder
Abu Muhammad Asem al-Maqdisi the group's ideologist
Mohammed Atta leader of the 9/11 attack
Ayman al-Zawahiri second-in-command of Al-Qaeda
Karim Koubriti Detroit Five[3]
Ahmed Hannan Detroit Five[3]
Youssef Hmimssa Detroit Five[3]
Abdella Lnu Detroit Five[3]
Farouk Ali-Haimoud Detroit Five[3]
Saad Madai Saad al-Azmi Combatant Status Review Tribunal[4]
Adil Zamil Abdull Mohssin Al Zamil Combatant Status Review Tribunal[5]
Kamel Essamer leader in Algeria
Mohammed Bouyeri the assassin of the Dutch film director Theo van Gogh, was influenced by Takfir wal-Hijra's ideology[6]
The Hofstad Network the fundamentalist cell of which Mohammed Bouyeri was a supporter, was influenced by Takfir wal-Hijra ideology


International Opposition

Takfir wal-Hajra has been designated a terrorist organisation by the EU.[7]


References


1^ "Al Qaeda's New Front" Frontline PBS News, 25 January 2005
2^ The Salafist Movement, Frontline (PBS)
3^ a b c d e USA v. Karim Kobrouti et al. (page 4 of the .pdf), Findlaw
4^ documents (.pdf) from Sa'ad Madhi Sa'ad Ha Wash Al-Azmi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
5^ documents (.pdf) from Adil Zamil Abdull Mohssin Al Zamil's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
6^ Murder for the sake of Allah- Blasphemy vs.Jihad in Holland, Militant Islam Monitor
7^ 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


An Embarrassing Loss for the Justice Department

Note: The FBI arrested 4 alleged Takfiri terrorists in Detroit, where they were tried on federal terrorism charges. Two were convicted, and one pled guilty. However, an appeals court threw out the convictions after reviewing evidence that the prosecutors manufactured evidence, withheld evidence from the defense that would have cleared these men, and committed gross prosecutorial misconduct. Who tipped off the appeals court of the prosecutorial misconduct, the forged evidence, etc? The Justice Department itself, which is now considering prosecuting the prosecutors.

While on a trip to Disneyland, the four men recorded a home video. The Justice Department believed that this recording was reconnaissance for a future terror attack. This video, combined with the testimony of self-described con-artist Youssef Hmimssa, and what the defense called doodles in a day planner, but the prosecution called terror plans, led to the conviction of Koubriti and Elmardoudi.

The prosecution claimed the five were "Takfiris" — followers of a radical Islamic sect that allowed jihadists to drink alcohol, use narcotics, and refrain from praying, in order to blend in to Western societies, so they could mount clandestine attack on them.

Youssef Hmimssa, who plead guilty to multiple charges of credit card fraud and identity theft, agreed to testify against the four men, in a deal that would allow him to consolidate his other charges, and avoid further charges, reducing his sentence to between 37 and 46 months in prison.


Post-trial

Later, the conviction of the two men was overturned by information proving that the prosecution had withheld important information from the defense. In the Justice Department's filing they claimed there was "no reasonable prospect of winning," and "In its best light, the record would show that the prosecution committed a pattern of mistakes and oversights that deprived the defendants of discoverable evidence (including impeachment material) and created a record filled with misleading inferences that such material did not exist,".
A federal grand jury is investigating whether the prosecution withheld information from the defense and deceived the jury.