Terrorist groups seek to keep us fixated on the past: Islamic thinker

Cairo – Dr. Abdullah Al-Najjar, a senior member at the Islamic Research Academy (IRA), said that extremists groups are hell-bent on excommunicating Muslim community, and tend to install themselves in the position of God. 

All misinterpretations and misrepresentations have emanated from their flawed, ossified thinking. They hijacked religions for political gains, and deviated from the right path of faith. They interpreted Islamic texts for their own profit, and accused anyone opposing them of disbelief and infidelity. 

They spilled a lot of blood, defiled the honor of many and stripped the entire Ummah [i.e. Community] off all dignity. Those self-righteous, holier-than-thou fanatics have been anathematizing all righteous and pious scholars, and the Muslim community at large, as did Sayyid Qutb.

Al-Najjar added that terrorism is a despicable crime against the innocent, from which even women, children and the elderly were not safe.

His remarks came during a meeting with the distinguished imams at the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq camp. He said: “The crisis went as far as insulting Al-Azhar and its men, who are the bulwarks of Islam. The ukterior motive of their systemic smear campaign is to malign Al-Azhar and distance us off from out past.  In addition to their atheist ideas, they want to abolish religion and the belief in the deity.

The Abu Bakr al-Siddiq camp provides training and educational courses for imams and preachers. Egypt’s Minister of Al-Awqaf (i.e. religious endowments and affairs) decided to resume the camp’s activities after a six-year hiatus.