Takfir, or the process of being declared apostate among Muslims, is the focus of an international conference being organized in Saudi Arabia, according to Caryle Murphy writing today for GlobalPost.com. Her report, “Saudi’s struggle to reclaim Islam,” is one in the series “House at war,” which examines Saudi Arabia’s “fight to reclaim Islam from Al Qaeda and in some cases re-educate militants.” In today’s article she interviewed Muslim scholar Al Imam Muhammad bin Saud, who is charged with organizing the conference that will tackle the question of Takfir, and the effort to wrest authority for judging someone as apostate from extremist groups. He told Murphy, “Takfir in Islam is a principle that is governed by its own rules, and not open to the whims and judgments of people.” He said, “It is first and foremost a judicial sentence, and not just hearsay which people can talk about. … Only Shariah courts can say and prove that one is an apostate.” Murphy described the ruling Al Saud family’s interest in the issue, as “part of an ongoing, multi-faceted government campaign to discredit what its calls the “deviant” ideology of extremist groups.”
“Launched after a wave of terrorist bombings in the kingdom in 2003 and 2004, the effort also includes a prison rehabilitation program for detained Al Qaeda sympathizers and militants, some language revisions in religious textbooks, and a religious ruling, or fatwa, issued last month by the kingdom’s top clerical body criminalizing financial support for terrorist groups. King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz’s 2008 interfaith dialogue conference in Madrid was also part of this official reinforcement of Islam’s traditional moderation and tolerance. The government’s decision to focus now on takfir is significant because — in a region where Islamically based concepts influence devout populations — takfir gives extremists a theologically sound way to justify attacks on governments and renounce the Sunni Islamic tradition that forbids rebellion against a ruler.”
For the full text of Caryle Murphy’s “House at war: Saudi’s struggle to reclaim Islam” click here.
