The "taqiyya": infiltrating the infidels for the sake of Allah

Qur'an 2:225: "Allah will not hold you accountable for unintentional oaths, but for what you intended in your hearts. And Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Forbearing."

We could summarise this practice in very few words with the following phrase: Wolves in sheep's clothing.

As Allah says in the Qur'an, "Muslims are the best people that ever existed in mankind", while He reserves the following words for non-Muslims in Sura 98:6¹: "Indeed, they who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding eternally therein. Those are the worst of creatures".

Since the customs and beliefs of the non-believers, the infidels, are a sin for every Muslim, there are situations in which it is permitted to "sin" by pretending to be an infidel. This farce permitted by Allah and carried out in his name, takes the conception of "taqiyya" or "kithman", for the Shiites "lying under special circumstances".

To introduce the open debate regarding this practice, we will begin by mentioning the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's defence of Islam and taqiyya itself. As they state in a post on their official website, the concept of taqiyya, "lying under special circumstances", does not prove anything against Islam, adding that this term does not appear in the Qur'an. However, he adds by way of example several Qur'anic verses (16:107) in which one can glimpse a defence of the term, albeit not under such terminology, but for the same purpose: "Whoever ceases to believe in Allah, except whoever is forced to do so [...] and while their heart remains steadfast in faith, Allah's wrath will fall upon them; and they will suffer a severe punishment"; that is, for lying to be justified and forgiven by God, they have to be in a situation of ukriha, forced, under duress or hatred, something to which the jihadists constantly resort². Salafists and jihadists defend the lie if it protects and defends Islam and promotes their cause, even in court and in the media³.

In the words of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community: " Not to profess one's faith openly and to hide it for fear of being killed, is what the Holy Qur'an allows - to retract under extreme duress and suffering".

This manoeuvre of making us believe that they are "our friends", that they are integrated into our society and that in fact, they abhor jihadism, is enshrined in the Sharia, Islamic law, expressing that it is a tactic to survive in the face of the superiority of infidels. We mention an example from Abu Darda's treatise in the Shari'a: "We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them."⁴

It is worth mentioning the different ways of interpreting the biblical text, highlighting in this case the incorrect interpretations from the Salafist and Jihadist point of view, taking the prophet's words to the extreme. In the Qur'an, special emphasis is placed on the importance of truth, being certain that it refers to its truth: "No one fabricates lies except those who disbelieve in Allah’s revelations, and it is they who are the ˹true˺ liars." (Qur'an 16:105).

From the point of view of terrorism prevention, this methodology poses a challenge for law enforcement agencies. As Daesh itself has recommended to the faithful in its magazine Dar Al-Islam, 'they should conceal outward religious signs, such as shaving their beards'⁵, and even avoid praying in places of worship, preferring to pray in private in their own homes.

Despite the inherent danger in terms of jihadist terrorism, Islamophobia also finds a place in taqiyya. Known and used by radical Islamists, the term is often used to advocate hatred of Muslims. The belief that all Muslims feign integration into our society and the inherent danger we run by accepting them into our midst takes on weight if we appeal to taqiyya. As Imraan Siddiqi, executive director of the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations⁶, argues: "While 99.9% of Muslims are unaware of the purpose of taqiyya, most right-wing extremists are experts in this terminology and use it to defend their discourse."

1. Taqiyya: Deceiving the infidels for the good of Islam - Jewish Link (enlacejudio.com)
2. Did Prophet Muhammad (sa) teach Muslims to lie in order to spread Islam? (ahmadiyya-islam.org)
3. Taqiyya, lying in the name of Allah (enlacejudio.com)
4. Taqiyya: Deceiving infidels for the sake of Islam - Jewish Link (enlacejudio.com)
5. The 'Taqiyya', the jihadist resource that allows to violate the Koran in order to commit an attack (europapress.es)
6. "Taqiyya": How an unknown Islamic concept becomes the obsession of anti-Muslim activists - Islamophobia Observatory