Critical Ideologies: A Debate on Takfeer & Khurooj

The ideologues of extremism and violence use selected and skewed interpretations of some of the concepts and legal rulings, tradition and history of Islam to justify their use of violence against Muslim states, their institutions and rulers and also other Muslim sects. Such interpretations are neither agreed upon by all religious sects nor do all religious scholars1 within one particular sect endorse them. For instance, the concepts of takfeer (the act of declaring a Muslim to be outside the creed of Islam),2 and khurooj (going out/ armed rebellion against the state) are widely used by militant groups in Pakistan to propagate hatred and violence in the name of religion. Amid the people’s understanding of these issues and lack of diverse information and proper guidance, such interpretations may religiously sensitize them in favour of extremist forces.

With a view to create awareness among the people about takfeer and khurooj, Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) engaged leading religious scholars from all schools of thought in academic and intellectual debates to get a consensus viewpoint on these concepts and disseminate the outcome to the people. Three daylong debates were held for that purpose in 2011-12 in which religious scholars discussed at length almost all legal and academic aspects of takfeer and khurooj in the historical and contemporary perspectives with a special reference to Pakistan’s political and constitutional frameworks.

This book transcribes the complete recorded proceedings of the PIPS debates on takfeer and khurooj including religious scholars’ addresses and the subsequent deliberations. As Urdu was the ‘decided’ language of the debates, an effort has been made to keep the original Urdu terms along with their translation to facilitate readers’ understanding. Secondly, some parts of the debates have been summarized or even deleted to avoid repetition.