Here’s a brief history of the efforts to silence others—and their results—written by Mshari Al-Zaydi for Asharq Alawsat. He gives an overview of excommunication/takfir/herem in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism and sees it as a tool used by those who cannot argue, so instead seek to end the debate through force majeure.
He points out that while Egypt has been particularly active in this regard, Salafis are far from immune. And while Christianity brutally punished the excommunicated, it moved away from it, with the help of the excommunicated Jew Spinosa. Definitely worth reading.
Words Disrupted
Mshari Al-ZaydiAny shrewd observer knows that there is a crisis of communication and dialogue in the Arab world on numerous levels since intellectual trends and political groups seek to invalidate one another.
When Arab societies lose control they launch attacks of a destructive nature and this is happening amongst the intellectual elite.
This is the case in Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
However, the gravest danger of these wars of invalidation on both the intellectual and cultural levels is that regarding religion and the opposing intellectual’s “elimination” from the group in the same way that pre-Islamic Arabs would deal with the vagabond poets [As-Su’luk].
After having been ostracized by his tribe, one vagabond poet [Tarfa Ibnul Abd] said:
I was isolated like a quarantined camel!
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April:27:2008 - 17:07
[...] like a quarantined camel! John links to an essay in Asharq Alawsat about the history of excommunication/takfir as a means for silencing [...]
April:29:2008 - 01:49
I am confused between what a takfir, a heretic and an apostate is. Can someone explain…or are these all synonyms?
Has it gotten to the point that the one who dares to question and think is a takfir?
April:29:2008 - 02:18
Sparky,
These words have been used very loosely lately that they get confusing. I will give you the definitions I use.
- Takfir: is the act of identifying a follow Muslim as kafir (i.e.heretic)
- Apostate: is a person that leaves the religion outright. (i.e. becoming an atheist or joining another religion)
- Heretic: is a person deemed to step outside the boundaries of religion through acts or words. For example some radical Sunnah consider Shiia’s as heretics, because they stepped beyond what they consider the boundaries of Islam. Since Shiia’s do not declare themselves as non-Muslims they are considered heretics and not apostates under this ideology. The word heretic has been thrown around a lot lately. Especially against writers and intellectuals that may exhibit ideas that put them in conflict with an influential cleric.
April:29:2008 - 02:31
One more thing. The problem with the use of the word heretic against others is that the killing of that person becomes justifiable. This method has been used to justify the killing of civilians by suicide bombers in Iraq. This can get real ugly when used by radicals.
Another, example of this is the famous Khomeini fatwa justifying the killing of Salman Rushdi, because he became a heretic when he wrote his book the Satanic Versus.