The grim reminder
Let Us Build Pakistan’s statement on the murder of Khurram Zaki:
We offer our condolences to Pakistani nation on the martyrdom of LUBP blog’s editor and leading human rights activist Khurram Zaki. After Shaheed Irfan Khudi Ali of Quetta, Shaheed Khurram Zaki is the second LUBP editorial team member who has been target killed by Takfiri Deobandi militants.
For the last one year, Shaheed Khurram Zaki was a target of a systematic hate campaign organized by Deobandi fanatic, Shamsuddin Amjad of the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan in collaboration with the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP aka ASWJ/LeJ).
In particular, hateful and violence inciting posters against Shaheed Khurram Zaki had been published recently by the Mashal Facebook page run by Shamsuddin Amjad, Asad Wasif and a few other pro-Taliban fanatics of Jamaat-e-Islami.
Shaheed Kurram Zaki was a bigger journalist and rights activist with more valuable credentials and contributions than those in mainstream media or NGOs who remain silent on or obfuscate systematic target killing of Shia Muslims, Sunni Sufis Muslims, Christians and other communities in Pakistan at the hands of Takfiri Deobandi militants.
I wish they wouldn’t use that word “Takfiri” – that’s just more of the same thing. I get why they want to say that’s not the right way to do Islam, but that word is toxic.
Khurram Zaki took a principled and courageous stance against the notorious Lal Masjid Deobandi cleric, Abdul Aziz, when the latter refused to condemn the same Taliban/ASWJ terrorists who killed 150 school children in Peshawar. Zaki’s bold and unwavering stance against this cleric brought him to the attention of the Takfiri Deobandi nexus which is also responsible for 100% of suicide bombings in Pakistan.
In boldly highlighting and supporting the rights of Sunni Barelvis, Shias, Sufis, Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians, his contribution as citizen journalism was much bigger than all journalists combined in Pakistan. His death is the grim reminder that whoever raises voice against Taliban, ASWJ/LeJ and Jamaat-e-Islami Deobandi mafia in Pakistan will not be spared. And when they have to murder, they never fail.
In keeping with the legacy of Shaheed Khurram Zaki, LUBP will not bow down to Takfiri Deobandi terrorism. We will continue to work for greater Sunni-Shia unity and support all operations against the TTP, ASWJ/LeJ and other terrorists. We will continue to highlight and condemn Shia genocide and target killings of Sunni Sufis, Christians and other communities in Pakistan at the hands of Deobandi militants.
There it is again, twice. That’s not the right way to liberal.
Khurram Zaki’s martyrdom is the result of a sustained campaign against not only LUBP but all those Pakistanis like Irfan Khudi Ali and Sabeen Mahmud who spoke the truth. We have no doubt that his target killing has been engineered by and is the result of a systematic hate campaign by Shamsuddin Amjad of Jamaat-e-Islami. We remind Shamsuddin Amjad that all lawful means will be used to ensure that he is held to account for this murder.
To honour and preserve the memory of our dearly departed colleague, LUBP is setting up the Shaheed Khurram Zaki Trust to ensure the well being of family members and children of deceased activists killed by Takfiri Deobandi terrorists regardless of their sect or faith background.
Again with the “Takfiri.” Please don’t. All the condolences, and solidarity, but please don’t do that.
‘Takfiri’ is exactly the right word. These assholes believe they are specially endowed with power of life and death over everyone else on Earth. Above all other muslims, who’s validity as such THEY are empowered to judge on a whim.
Not sure what you think Takfiri means, but the actual meaning of the word is people, specifically Sunni Muslims, who declare other Muslims as kaffirs. This is what groups like ASWJ/TTP/LeJ/SSP do in Pakistan. So in this particular context, the word is an accurate description of these groups.
http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e2319
http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/blog/maajid-nawazs-detractors-are-not-just-vindictive-and-malicious-they-miss-the-point-entirely/
@ 3 Ophelia Benson
What the commenters are saying is that “takfiri” doesn’t mean, “not a proper Muslim”, it means, “one who accuses others of not being proper Muslims”.
So takfiri is not like “apostate”, it’s like “intolerant purist”.
See wiki.
@ 4 Silentbob – one commenter said that, but the two passages I quoted said something else.
@ 5 Ophelia Benson
??? I think we’ve had a miscommunication?
I’m not disputing your sources. The first one says that takfir is an accusation of apostasy, that it is used “for sanctioning violence against leaders of Islamic states who are deemed insufficiently religious”, and that some leaders regard it “as un-Islamic and marked by bigotry and zealotry”.
Just so. Takfir is the accusation of apostasy, takfiri is the Arabic word for the people who make such accusations (not the so accused). Takfiri refers to the “bigots and zealots”.
The second source says ” Islamist extremist[s]” “threaten the charge of takfir or apostate” against Maajid Nawaz “with the implicit (and sometimes explicit) threat of violence”.
Yes. So the people making such accusations are takfiri.
When the source in the OP says “Takfiri Deobandi militants”, it means Deobandi militants who “threaten the charge of apostate with the implicit threat of violence”.
The meaning of takfiri is not disputed, just Google. eg:
Thanks @silentbob for clarifying my comment. I think Ophelia’s misunderstanding of the word Takfiri with the word Takfir comes the fact that both words are very similar (in both sound and spelling). Based on Arabic grammar, Takfir (تکفیر) is a noun (the accusation of apostasy) which comes from the root word Kafara (کفر), which refers to apostasy. When ta and ya are added to Kafara to form Takfir, this meaning changes from “apostasy” (Kafara) to the “accusation of apostasy” (Takfir). The noun Takfiri (تکفیری) is formed by adding a ya to Takfir resulting in changing meaning from an “accusation of apostasy” to an “individuals that accuses other individuals of apostasy”. Because one of the source languages in the formation of Urdu is Arabic ( with Farsi, Turkish, Sanskrit and other Indian indigenous languages being the others), in Pakistan where Urdu is one of the official languages, the usage of the word Takfiri is retained from Arabic grammar.