Islam And Extremism

THE ISSUE OF KUFR AND KAFIR “kafirs.” Instead, they addressed each group by their own chosen identity. Thus, the Christians of Syria were called Christians, the Jews of Palestine were called Jews, the Magians of Iran were called Magians (Majusi), and the Buddhists of Afghanistan were called Buddhists (Budhi), and so on. This practice continued when early Muslims arrived in India. They referred to the local population as Hindus—which is the Arabic pronunciation of “Sindhu.” The famous scholar Al-Biruni (d. 1048 AD) traveled to India, learned Sanskrit, and wrote his renowned Arabic work Kitab al-Hind (The Book on India). Throughout the book, he refers to the non-Muslims of the region as Hindus, never as “the kafirs of India.” For more than a thousand years, this practice remained in force. Even today, this custom largely continues in India, Pakistan, and the rest of the world. Muslims live in the United States and in various European countries, where they interact with non-Muslim communities. Yet they address everyone by the names those people have chosen for themselves; they do not call them kafirs or kuffar. A Few Historical Examples As stated above, the style of address found in Chapter al-Kafirun appears in the Quran only for the deniers