Calls to Ban Takfir Will Merely Widen Religious Divisions

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In The Media

Calls to Ban Takfir Will Merely Widen Religious Divisions

Tunisia and Morocco are stuck between competing secularist and Islamist conceptions of the true and ideal nation and the role of religion in it.

By Intissar Fakir

Published on Jan 29, 2014

Source: National

A series of hot-button debates between Islamists and secularists in Tunisia and Morocco are distracting both sides from their countries’ more pressing issues and fuelling already dangerous currents of polarisation.

A key example is the recent discussion about banning or criminalising the practice of takfir – the declaration by one Muslim that another is an apostate, the term for a former adherent who now rejects Islam as a religion.

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This article was originally published in the National.

About the Author

Intissar Fakir

Former Fellow, Middle East Program, Editor in Chief, Sada

Intissar Fakir was a fellow and editor in chief of Sada in Carnegie’s Middle East Program.

Recent Work

Research
Islamic Institutions in Arab States: Mapping the Dynamics of Control, Co-option, and Contention
- +6
  Yasmine Farouk, Nathan J. Brown, Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen, …
Commentary
A Conflict That Time Forgot
- Intissar Fakir

Political Reform Religion North Africa Morocco Tunisia Maghreb

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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