The Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments, Dr. Osama Al-Azhari, directed sharp criticism at the thought of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is classified as a terrorist group in Egypt, Hassan Al-Banna, stressing that he revived the thought of the Kharijites.
Al-Azhari said in an article published by the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments on Thursday that “Hassan al-Banna’s approach was based on changing custom, entering parliaments and seizing power by force, given that he considered governance and leadership to be among the fundamentals of religion and not its branches, which led to the use of force and weapons against those who disagreed with them,” noting that “Hassan al-Banna’s followers carried out a series of assassinations against those who were loyal to their religion and their country.”
The Egyptian minister stressed that "our talk about Hassan al-Banna is not about his person, but rather we present him as a methodology and way of thinking in order to learn about the scientific formation, to deduce the reasons for error and deviation from the path of Sharia, and to learn about the first roots that were the reason for the emergence of extremist currents."
He added that “Al-Banna was not the first to adopt this extremist ideology, but rather there are successive waves in every period of history of mixing the fundamentals of religion with its branches, leading to takfir (excommunication) and bearing arms against opponents,” noting that “Al-Banna agreed with the Kharijites in understanding the verses of the Holy Qur’an with the same erroneous approach that mixes the fundamentals with the branches, so that the starting point is united with the result, which is takfir and bearing arms.”
He pointed out that the "Kharijite ideology" emerged with Hassan al-Banna as a seed, and with Sayyid Qutb as a complete idea, and it also appeared in the form of application among military militias such as ISIS, Boko Haram and others, which necessitates confronting their ideas and fortifying the nation's awareness against their arguments.
Al-Azhari considered that “signs of sorrow and regret appeared clearly on Hassan al-Banna” at a later time, due to “the extremist thought he adopted at the beginning of his life, and the change of his reckless enthusiasm, and the loss of his impetuousness after he became involved with reality, so it became clear to him that the haste in considering matters, studying reality, and the lack of understanding of Sharia and its objectives led him to error and haste in declaring those who disagreed with him as infidels, and building his ideas that mix between the fundamentals of religion and its branches, without providing any benefit to the nation or the homeland.”
