Encyclopedia of Islam

tajwid

  See q

uran

.

takfir

  See 

kafir

.

Takfir wa’l-Hijra

Takfir wa’l-Hijra is the popular name for a militant 

Islamist organization operating in e

gypt

 during 

the 1970s. Led by Shukri Mustafa, an agronomy 

K  656  

tahara

---

stUdent

 from Asyut and a m

Uslim

  b

rotherhood

activist, al-Takfir wa’l-Hijra formed out of the 

prison debates that divided Islamists who had 

been incarcerated by the regime of Egyptian presi-

dent J

amal

 a

bd

 

al

-n

asir

 (1918–70). Mustafa was 

jailed in 1967 during one of the many crackdowns 

on the Muslim Brotherhood, which Nasir viewed 

as a threat to his political control of e

gypt

. Sub-

jected to harsh mental and physical abuse while 

incarcerated, the Muslim Brotherhood split into 

two distinct and often antagonistic factions: the 

moderates, who believed that peaceful activism 

(preaching, teaching, publishing, charity) was 

the best way of surviving and working toward the 

Islamist ideal, and the militants, who regarded the 

then-current society as corrupt, un-Islamic, and in 

need of a kind of radical purification that simple 

activism could not effect.

While in prison, Mustafa took charge of 

one of the militant subfactions, the Society of 

Muslims (later labeled al-Takfir wa’l-Hijra by 

the Egyptian press), and, upon his release in 

1971, he returned to Asyut, where he preached 

and gained a following. One of the distinctive 

features of the Society of Muslims was its com-

mitment to separate itself from society, both spir-

itually and physically. For a time, some members 

lived in the hills surrounding Asyut; even those 

residing in the suburbs of c

airo

 created a com-

munal existence in isolation from the corrupting 

influences of what was deemed secular Egypt. 

Eventually the activities of the group became 

known to the press, which depicted Shukri and 

his followers as social and religious misfits. Of 

particular media interest was the accusation that 

members had abducted young women to serve 

as their wives. Religious officials also weighed 

in against the society, declaring its members to 

be extremists along the lines of the k

haWariJ

, an 

early radical Islamic sect.

When a competing Islamist group attempted 

to entice a number of Shukri’s members away 

from the society in 1976, Shukri declared that 

any defector would be considered an apostate and 

subject to the ultimate punishment: 

death

. A sub-

sequent public brawl with this competing group 

led the government to arrest a number of society 

members, though Shukri escaped and went into 

hiding. It was at this time that the media came 

to refer to the Society of Muslims as al-Takfir 

wa’l-Hijra or Excommunication and Emigration,

because of the group’s decision to condemn fellow 

Muslims as unbelievers (pronounce the Takfir) 

and to separate itself from the community (per-

form a h

iJra

). In an effort to pressure the govern-

ment to free his followers, Shukri ordered the 

kidnapping of Shaykh Muhammad al-Dhahabi, an 

ex-religious official and one of the earlier critics of 

the Society. After the government refused to nego-

tiate, the Takfir organization executed Shaykh 

al-Dhahabi and mass arrests followed. At his trial, 

Shukri leveled a scathing critique of Egypt’s reli-

gious and political authorities and justified the 

use of violence. Several leaders, including Shukri, 

were sentenced to death and later executed; many 

others were given lengthy prison terms.

See also i

slamism

; 

Jihad

 

movements

.

Jeffrey Kenney