Saudi King urges Muslim scholars to combat ‘takfeer’ practice

By: Abdulali

HOLY CITY OF MECCA, Saudi Arabia: King Fahd of Saudi Arabia has called on Muslim scholars to counter extremism and highlight the dangers which radicalism poses to the Muslim's creed and conduct.

In an address read on his behalf in the opening session of a conference of the Islamic Jurisprudents' Assembly in the holy city of Mecca, the ailing monarch said the scholars must join hands to “correct the flaws in the thinking of some Muslims through dialogue in seminars, conferences and via the media.”

The assembly groups religious scholars from Islamic states and is affiliated to the Mecca-based Muslim World League.

Fahd also appealed to the jurisprudents' assembly to combat the practice of “takfeer,” whereby Muslim extremists hold other Muslims to be heretical, warning that it threatened to trigger inter-Islamic strife. He said scholars should “tackle the strife (caused by) takfeer that is rearing its head in some Islamic societies.”

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