Is it permissible to declare the general and specific Shi'ah disbelievers? And when is it permissible to declare a specific Muslim a disbeliever?

The questioner : Our esteemed Shaykh, we first convey to you the greetings of the brothers from the people of the Sunnah and the community in Iraq.

The Shaykh : And upon you and them be peace.

The questioner : There is a set of questions we would like to convey to your eminence, which address the current reality. The first question is: Is it permissible to declare the general Shi'ah disbelievers, or only specific sects among them, or specific groups among them?

The Shaykh : We always and forever say that it is not permissible in the Shari'ah of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) to declare a sect or group of Muslims disbelievers as a whole. This is not permissible, because any sect may contain individuals who do not deserve to be declared disbelievers due to an excuse or another reason. Likewise, there may be among them those who do deserve to be declared disbelievers. Therefore, it is not permissible in any way to say, for example, that all the Shi'ah are disbelievers, or the Zaydiyyah, or the Khawarij, or the Ibadhiyyah, or other sects that existed in the past and whose traces still exist to this day. This is the first point. In summary, it is not permissible to declare disbelievers as a whole; rather, it is necessary to distinguish between cases. And we know from experience that many of the general Muslims, regardless of whether they belong to the Sunnah or to the Shi'ah...