Kharijite

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{{Islam}}
'''Kharijites''' or '''Khawarij''' (الخوارج‎) were an ancient [[extremist]] group or [[sect]] during the first century in the history of [[Islam]]. They were known for conducting violence against fellow Muslims and for their rigid exclusivist doctrines. The group was active especially during the succession crisis after the death of [[Muhammad]] (known as "First Fitna"). Kharijites belived the will of [[God]] to be above people's arbitration and the acceptable leadership to be decided by battle.<ref group=note>Quranic passage, "If two parties of the faithful fight each other, then conciliate them. Yet if one is rebellious to the other, then fight the insolent one until it returns to God 's command. ({{Qur'an|49|9}})" is referred to as its justification.</ref> They are responsible for the assassination of Ali, who is mourned by [[Shi'a]] Muslims up to this day. Kharijites existed for hundreds of years. They built up their distinct doctrinal structure, which is obsolete today, except for the distant relative known as [[Ibadi]] Islam, which is popular only in Oman and tiny desert communities in North Africa. Ironically, the Ibadi are quite peaceful and known for producing almost no extremists. A modern historian describes Kharijites as "Bedouin nomads who resented the centralization of power in the new Islamic state that curtailed the [[freedom]] of their tribal society."<ref name=Schultz-1981-175>{{cite book|last1=Schultz|first1=Joseph P.|title=Judaism and the Gentile Faiths: Comparative Studies in Religion|date=1981|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|page=175|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dchpiP-9YQAC&pg=PA175|quote=bedouin nomads who resented the centralization of power in the new Islamic state that curtailed the freedom of their tribal society.}}</ref>

==Why it matters==
One of the core doctrinal tenets of Kharijite resembles that of today's [[Islamist]] [[terrorism]] or terrorism conducted in the name of Islam. Notably, they are quick to [[Excommunication|excommunicate]] (''takfir'') fellow Muslims for not following their normative teaching of Islam. This quick-takfirism is one of the principles of early Islamist thinker [[Sayyid Qutb]]'s ideology (known as {{wpl|Qutbism||,}} an older brother of {{wpl|Salafi jihadism|Jihadism|,}}) which enabled the revolution against the [[despot]]ic regime of the Arab world and killing of the Muslim government officials, military personnel, and other members of state apparatus in the name of Islam. In general, takfirism involves a cautious procedure and has not been employed by the majority of Muslim clerics, and it may be possible to say that Kharijites and modern Islamist [[terrorists]] are the exceptional cases which frequently use takfirism as a religious methodology.<ref>Brown, Jonathan A.C. (2015) ''Misquoting Muhammad''. Oneworld Publications. pp.66-67, pp.123-128.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kepel|first1=Gilles|title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tttzgNKFAI8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Jihad:+The+Trail+of+Political+Islam&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0kg-VY2TEsnooASpqIDIAw&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Jihad%3A%20The%20Trail%20of%20Political%20Islam&f=false |date=2002|publisher=Harvard University Press.|ref=GKJTPI2002}}</ref>

As such, Kharijites are almost universally denounced by Muslims, both [[Sunni]] and Shi'a, and they are frequently invoked by Muslims to denounce the terrorist groups like [[Al-Qaeda]] and [[DAESH]]. This is an important point to see the line between even the staunchest hard-core conservative Muslims who advocate for [[Burqa|Niqab]] and public [[gender]] [[segregation]], and groups like Al-Qaeda and DAESH which commit violence and terrorism. In the Muslim [[worldview]], terrorist groups are Kharijites, point blank period, and there's no room for conflating even the [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]] or [[Iran|Ayatollah's]] regime and DAESH because the former are not Kharijites, while the latter is.<ref>Al-Yaqoubi, Shaykh Muhammad. (2016) ''Refuting ISIS''. Sacred Knowledge. pp.8-21.</ref> It's a relevant perspective to consider in the light of frequent confusion of valid criticism of Islam and [[Islamophobia]]; mere conservatism of Islam has a drastic difference from the possibility of them turning into terrorists because, in the eyes of Muslims, terrorism is as despicable as Kharijites and it's best avoided for them to behave as such.<ref group=note>[https://www.csis.org/analysis/tracking-trends-and-numbers-islam-terrorism-stability-and-conflict-middle-east Needless to say, terrorism is an extremely complex phenomenon which cannot be explained by religious devotion alone.]</ref>

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Islam]]
[[Category:Islamic extremism]]
[[Category:Cults]]

Categories: Islam, Islamic extremism, Cults