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Yusuf al-Qaradawi was an Egyptian Islamic scholar based in Doha, Qatar, and chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. His influences included Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Qayyim, Sayyid Rashid Rida, Hassan al-Banna, Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi, Abul A'la Maududi and Naeem Siddiqui. He was best known for his programme الشريعة والحياة, al-Sharīʿa wa al-Ḥayāh, broadcast on Al Jazeera, which had an estimated audience of 40–60 million worldwide. He was also known for IslamOnline, a website he helped to found in 1997 and for which he served as chief religious scholar.
Takfir or takfīr is an Arabic and Islamic term which denotes excommunication from Islam of one Muslim by another, i.e. accusing another Muslim to be an apostate. The word is found neither in the Quran nor in the ḥadīth literature; instead, kufr ("unbelief") and kāfir ("unbeliever") and other terms employing the same triliteral root k-f-r appear. "The word takfīr was introduced in the post-Quranic period and was first done by the Khawarij", according to J. E. Campo. The act which precipitates takfīr is termed mukaffir. A Muslim who declares another Muslim to be an unbeliever or apostate is a takfīri ("excommunicational"). Which is prohibited to do without court and 12 years of islamic studies. Since according to the traditional interpretations of Islamic law (sharīʿa) the punishment for apostasy is the death penalty, and potentially a cause of strife and violence within the Muslim community (Ummah), an ill-founded takfir accusation was a major forbidden act (haram) in Islamic jurisprudence, with one hadith declaring that one who wrongly declares a Muslim an unbeliever is himself not an apostate but rather committed minor shirk. In the history of Islam, a sect originating in the 7th century CE known as the Kharijites carried out takfīr against both Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims, and became the main source of insurrection against the early caliphates for centuries. Traditionally, the only group authorized to declare another Muslim a kāfir are the scholars of Islam (Ulama), which affirm that all the prescribed legal precautions should be taken before declaring takfīr, and that those who profess the Islamic faith should be exempt.
Sheikh Abd al Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz was a Saudi Arabian Islamic scholar who served as the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia from 1993 until his death in 1999. According to French political scientist Gilles Kepel, ibn Baz was a "figurehead" whose "immense religious erudition and his reputation for intransigence" gave him prestige among the population of Saudi Arabia. He "could reinforce the Saud family's policies through his influence with the masses of believers". His death left the government without a comparable figure from amongst Salafi scholars to "fill his shoes". He was a leading proponent of the Salafi school of thought.
Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, or more fully Abu Muhammad Essam al-Maqdisi, is the assumed name of Essam Muhammad Tahir al-Barqawi, an Islamist Jordanian-Palestinian writer. A Qutubi jihadi ideologue, he has popularized many of the most common themes of radical Islam today, like the theological impetus given to the notion of Al Wala' Wal Bara', being the first to declare the Saudi royal family to be apostates or considering democracy a religion, and thus whoever believes in it to be an apostate, but he is best known as the spiritual mentor of Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the initial leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. However, an ideological and methodical split emerged between Maqdisi and Zarqawi in 2004 due to Zarqawi's takfeer proclamations towards the Shia populations in Iraq. Maqdisi opted for a more cautious approach towards targeted Shia killings, attempting to stop Zarqawi's radical ideological movement before Zarqawi's methods become counter-productive.
Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh is a Saudi Arabian scholar who is the current Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. As such he is head of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars and its sub-committee, the Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Issuing Fatwas.
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The Islamic State (IS)—also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and by its Arabic acronym Da'ish—is a Salafi jihadist transnational Islamist terror group and former unrecognised quasi-state. It was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 1999 and gained global prominence in 2014, when its militants conquered large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, aided by the Syrian civil war. By the end of 2015, it ruled an area with an estimated population of twelve million people, where it enforced its interpretation of Islamic law, administered an annual budget of more than US$1 billion, and had more than 30,000 fighters under its command. After years of intense and grinding combat with American, Iraqi, and Kurdish forces, by 2019 it had lost all its Middle Eastern territories and returned to insurgency tactics in the regions it once controlled, operating from remote hideouts and continuing its propaganda efforts, which have gained it a strong following in northern and Sahelian Africa.
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Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb is an Egyptian Islamic scholar and the current Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Al-Azhar Al Sharif and former president of al-Azhar University. He was appointed by the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, following the death of Mohamed Sayed Tantawy in 2010. He is from Kurna, Luxor Governorate in Upper Egypt, and he belongs to a Sunni Muslim family.
Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya, commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition of multiple Islamist units that coalesced into a single brigade and later a division in order to fight against the Syrian Government led by Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War. Ahrar al-Sham was led by Hassan Aboud until his death in 2014. In July 2013, Ahrar al-Sham had 10,000 to 20,000 fighters, which at the time made it the second most powerful unit fighting against al-Assad, after the Free Syrian Army. It was the principal organization operating under the umbrella of the Syrian Islamic Front and was a major component of the Islamic Front. With an estimated 20,000 fighters in 2015, Ahrar al-Sham became the largest rebel group in Syria after the Free Syrian Army became less powerful. Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam are the main rebel groups supported by Turkey. On 18 February 2018, Ahrar al-Sham merged with the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement to form the Syrian Liberation Front.
Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia is a radical Islamist group that operates in Tunisia. In 2013, the group was estimated to have roughly 10,000 members. It has been listed as a terrorist group by the Tunisian government as well by Iraq, the United Nations, the UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States. Some of its members may be linked to the 2015 Sousse attacks. In 2013, the group declared loyalty to Al-Qaeda.
Madkhalism is a strain of Quietist thought within the larger Salafist movement based on the writings of Sheikh Rabee al-Madkhali, characterised by monarchism and loyalty to secular authoritarian governments in the Arab world. Arab states have generally favored Madkhalism due to its support for secular forms of government as opposed to other strains of Salafism, and Madkhalism's decline in Saudi Arabia has been connected with a decline in support for secular forms of government in the Muslim world.
Sexual jihad refers to the alleged practice in which women sympathetic to Jihadist extremism travel to war zones such as Syria and voluntarily offer themselves to be "married" to jihadist militants, often repeatedly and in temporary marriages, serving sexual comfort roles to help boost the fighters' morale.
Nasir al-Fahd is a Saudi Arabian Salafist Islamic scholar who supports jihadism and use of nuclear weapons against the United States. He was arrested in 2003 by the Saudi Arabian government after "preaching to his followers to rise up against the infidels" and has since been held without charge as a political prisoner.
The ideology of the Islamic State, sometimes called Islamic Statism, has been described as being a hybrid of Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Sunni Islamist fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Qutbism. Through its official statement of beliefs originally released by its first leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, IS defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites".
Radwan Nammous, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Firas al-Suri, was a senior official in the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front, serving as the group's spokesman.
Abdul Razzaq al-Mahdi, is a Syrian Islamist cleric who is actively involved fighting in the Syrian Civil War against the Syrian government. He originates from Damascus's Al-Salihiyah district and was born in 1961.
Abdullah al-Muhaysini, is a Saudi Arabian Salafi cleric who is known for having served as a religious judge in the Army of Conquest in the Syrian Civil War.
References
- 1 2 "The Ideological Voices of the Jihadi Movement". Jamestown. Retrieved Jan 4, 2021.
- 1 2 Aron Lund, "Holier Than Thou: Rival Clerics in the Syrian Jihad", Jamestown Foundation, 16 July 2012
- ↑ "Deadly Conversations". Aug 13, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-08-13. Retrieved Jan 4, 2021.
- ↑ Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. (2006) The Shai revival:how conflicts within Islam will shape the future. New York:W.W. Norton. pp. 208-209. ISBN 978-0-393-06211-3.
- ↑ "Syrian Jihadist Scholar Abu Basir Al-Tartusi: Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi is an Apostate," Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project/The Reform Project |December 24, 2008
- ↑ "Syrian Jihadist Scholar Abu Basir Al-Tartusi: Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi is an Apostate. 27 December 2008". Archived from the original on 8 April 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
- ↑ "The Poplar preacher leading an armed gang of jihadis in Syria". The Telegraph. Retrieved Jan 4, 2021.
- ↑ Ladadwi, Abdullāh. (7 October 2014) "Conclusive scholarly opinions on ISIS". Current Affairs section. Islam21C. Retrieved 23 July 2015. Islam21C
- ↑ عبد الحليم, طارق (28 Feb 2017). "Tareq Abdul Halim criticises". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2017-03-15.
- ↑ Lister, Charles (3 Mar 2017). "Salafist cleric Abu Basir al-Tartusi has demanded a trial of Nusra/JFS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani for crimes against Syria's revolution". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2017-03-15.