Shukri Mustafa

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Shukri Mustafa (Arabic: شكري مصطفى‎) was an agricultural engineer who would rise to lead Takfir wal-Hijra. He began his path toward Islamist thought by joining the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s. After being arrested for activities related to the group he became interested in the works of Sayyid Qutb and various radical thinkers. After being released in 1971 he became involved in increasing the power of the new radical group Takfir wal-Hijra. Elements of the group's history are uncertain so he has at times stated to have just been their founder.

In the 1970s he led the group to the controversial position that all Muslims outside his group were Takfir and that the goal was for his group to grow until it could defeat "apostasy." This initially made them separatist but not violent. They settled in Upper Egyptian caves or communes to wait for the final battle. The controversy at this point revolved around his members cutting off contact with their families. This caused several lawsuits from family members of women who joined. They felt Shukri was in essence seducing their daughters, or in some cases wives, from them and thus negating Egyptian views of family. This idea of him as seductive or aberrant was heightened by the fact that he declared the power to reshuffle marriages of those in the group and deemed himself to be like a mahdi. Also some deemed his thinking to be like that of Kharijism.

The situation changed in 1977 as the group became horrified by hints of Anwar Sadat making initial overtures at peace with Israel. Soon after that he abandoned the idea of postponing "the battle" until an undetermined future. By the fall of that year the group had kidnapped and murdered a mainstream Muslim cleric. They had also become increasingly threatening in their rhetoric. The authorities responded and by 1978 Shukri had been captured and executed.