‘Infidel’ Keyword to Understanding Risks of Islamic Radicalization
In recent history, genocides have often been accompanied by the preparatory dehumanization of victims.
In 1994 in Rwanda, for example, the Hutu interhamwe labelled the Tutsis as “termites” or “cockroaches” before they killed more than one million (mainly) Tutsis. Similarly, before World War II, the Nazi regime in Germany often featured illustrations of Jews in cartoons and other propaganda materials looking decrepit or sub-human and forced Jews to wear yellow stars saying “Achtung Juden (Warning: a Jew).” In other cases, such as in the predominantly Ibo region of Biafra in 1961, the northern Nigerian military used terms such as “gwadai gwadai” (mosquitos) to refer to the Ibo, who suffered up to one million deaths as a result of the military’s putting down of the rebellion.
Each generation, each region and each group of victims has seen different terms and methods used against them, but the one common factor behind all genocides or mass killings is that the victims are dehumanized before the violence can take place. One of the more recent challenges in preventing a possible next genocide or mass killing is that, for the first time in recent memory, the perpetrators of such attacks are using and citing religion to justify their violence. From Boko Haram in north-eastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon, to the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to al-Qaeda in its global operations, the religious ideology to justify the kidnapping, killing and rape of tens of thousands of people is takfirism.
Etymology and Background of ‘Takfirism’
The word kafir in Arabic—incorporated into almost all languages that Muslims speak—translates most closely to “infidel” in English. Takfir is based on the root word kafir and most closely means the “act of labeling another person an infidel.” Takfirism therefore refers to the doctrine in Islam of labeling other people as infidels, usually non-Sunni Muslims who comprise more than 80% of Muslims around the world and maintain that their religious belief and practice is truer than other sects, such as the Shi’a. However, also assumed under the concept of kafir in Islam are “apostates,” or those who have disassociated from their Muslim background and no longer consider themselves Muslims (in many cases, they have adopted Christianity or another religion). The doctrine of takfirism is broad enough to include the labeling of all non-Sunni Muslims as kafirs, therefore including those Muslim background believers who left their religion.
Since the U.S. and Allied war in Iraq in 2003, the doctrine of takfirism has been increasingly used to target Muslims who are perceived to collaborate with the U.S. and other “infidel” powers by, for example, enlisting in Iraqi security services, participating in democratic elections or migrating to Iraq to work for companies involved with the U.S. forces. Abdul Basit, the pseudonym of a scholar for a Taliban media wing called “Neda ul‐Jihad” (“call of jihad” in Arabic) even advocated that ordinary Muslims (who are not linked to the government or indeed to foreigners) are also kafir, simply on the basis that they did not actively participate in jihad.
