Takfir wa al-Hijra

Takfir wal-Hijra
Active	1971–present (as Jama'at al-Muslimin group until 1978, decentralised underground movement since)
Ideology	Takfiri (Qutbism)
Leaders	Shukri Mustafa  †
Originated as	Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (Sayyid Qutb-wing)
Opponents	Governments of Arab countries, "Apostate" Muslims, non-Muslims

Takfir wal-Hijra (Arabic: تكفير والهجرة‎‎, translation: "Excommunication and Exodus", alternately "excommunication and emigration" or "anathema and exile"), was the popular name given to a radical Islamist group Jama'at al-Muslimin founded by Shukri Mustafa which emerged in Egypt in the 1960s as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Although the group was crushed by Egyptian security forces after it murdered an Islamic scholar and former government minister in 1977, it is said to have "left an enduring legacy" taken up by some Islamist radicals in "subsequent years and decades."

The label "Takfir wal-Hijra" ("excommunication and exodus") was from the start a derogatory term used by the official Egyptian press media when talking about the cult group Jama'at al-Muslimin. The word takfir means to judge and label somebody (specifically one or more self-proclaimed Muslims, in this case contemporary Muslim society) to be a kafir (non-Muslim infidel). Hijra means flight or emigration or leaving, specifically the migration of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca where they were being persecuted, to the city of Medina. Thus, "Takfir wal-Hijra" referred to Muslims who judge a society to be infidel, and see it as their duty to separate from it until such a time as they can return in strength to conquer and Islamicize it, as Muhammad did to Mecca.

Since few Egyptian Muslims (and no one in the government) agreed with Jama'at al-Muslimin's founder Shukri Mustafa that Muslims in Egypt deserved to be "excommunicated" (takfir), and that true Muslims were compelled to be in "exodus" (hijra), the cult's idea of "Takfir wal-Hijra" made it unique to most Egyptians. On the other hand, most Egyptians hesitated to use the title the group used for itself, Jama'at al-Muslimin meaning "Society of Muslims", as it implied that the group was the society of Muslims, and those not members were not part of Muslim society and not true Muslims. Consequently, "Takfir wal-Hijra" was the name given to the group by its detractors. Not surprisingly, Shukri and his followers strongly objected to being called that, but "Takfir wal-Hijra", and not Jama'at al-Muslimin, became fixed in the popular consciousness.

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