Is It Backbiting If One Thinks Ill Of Others In One's Own Thoughts
It is not backbiting in such cases. One is for the sake of psychiatric treatment and the other is a public affair and we need to make a better choice that is why we need to discuss the good and bad of the leaders. In the same way, the expert on Hadith, Muhadditheen, recorded the bad conduct of the weak narrators of Hadith to decide whether to take hadith from them or not. It is not backbiting. Backbiting is done for the sake of dishonoring a person in his absence in personal matters.