stUdent from Asyut and a mUslim brotherhood
activist, al-Takfir wa’l-Hijra formed out of the
prison debates that divided Islamists who had
been incarcerated by the regime of Egyptian presi-
dent Jamal abd al-nasir (1918–70). Mustafa was
jailed in 1967 during one of the many crackdowns
on the Muslim Brotherhood, which Nasir viewed
as a threat to his political control of egypt. Sub-
jected to harsh mental and physical abuse while
incarcerated, the Muslim Brotherhood split into
two distinct and often antagonistic factions: the
moderates, who believed that peaceful activism
(preaching, teaching, publishing, charity) was
the best way of surviving and working toward the
Islamist ideal, and the militants, who regarded the
then-current society as corrupt, un-Islamic, and in
need of a kind of radical purification that simple
activism could not effect.
While in prison, Mustafa took charge of
one of the militant subfactions, the Society of
Muslims (later labeled al-Takfir wa’l-Hijra by
the Egyptian press), and, upon his release in
1971, he returned to Asyut, where he preached
and gained a following. One of the distinctive
features of the Society of Muslims was its com-
mitment to separate itself from society, both spir-
itually and physically. For a time, some members
lived in the hills surrounding Asyut; even those
residing in the suburbs of cairo created a com-
munal existence in isolation from the corrupting
influences of what was deemed secular Egypt.
Eventually the activities of the group became
known to the press, which depicted Shukri and
his followers as social and religious misfits. Of
particular media interest was the accusation that
members had abducted young women to serve
as their wives. Religious officials also weighed
in against the society, declaring its members to
be extremists along the lines of the khaWariJ, an
early radical Islamic sect.
When a competing Islamist group attempted
to entice a number of Shukri’s members away
from the society in 1976, Shukri declared that
any defector would be considered an apostate and
subject to the ultimate punishment: death. A sub-
sequent public brawl with this competing group
led the government to arrest a number of society
members, though Shukri escaped and went into
hiding. It was at this time that the media came
to refer to the Society of Muslims as al-Takfir
wa’l-Hijra or Excommunication and Emigration,
because of the group’s decision to condemn fellow
Muslims as unbelievers (pronounce the Takfir)
and to separate itself from the community (per-
form a hiJra). In an effort to pressure the govern-
ment to free his followers, Shukri ordered the
kidnapping of Shaykh Muhammad al-Dhahabi, an
ex-religious official and one of the earlier critics of
the Society. After the government refused to nego-
tiate, the Takfir organization executed Shaykh
al-Dhahabi and mass arrests followed. At his trial,
Shukri leveled a scathing critique of Egypt’s reli-
gious and political authorities and justified the
use of violence. Several leaders, including Shukri,
were sentenced to death and later executed; many
others were given lengthy prison terms.
See also islamism; Jihad movements.
Jeffrey KenneyFurther reading: Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in
Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985);
Emmanuel Sivan, Radical Islam, enlarged ed. (New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1990).talaq See divorce.
Taliban (Pashto: “students”; also Taleban)
The most notorious Afghan Islamic movement to
appear in the last decade of the 20th century was
the Taliban. Composed of Pushtun (the dominant
ethnic group in aFghanistan) students and fight-
ers who had been recruited from Afghan madra-
sas (schools) and refugee camps in pakistan, it
surprised the world in 1996 by defeating veteran
aFghan mUJahidin militias and seizing control of
Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. Under the leadershipTaliban 657 J