Is the statement that contemporary Islamic groups are a greater danger to Islam than the Jews and Christians correct?

The questioner : To what extent is it accurate for someone to say that contemporary Islamic groups, other than the Salafi group—the original group, with "Salafi" written in parentheses—are a greater danger to Islam than the Jews and Christians, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, by analogy with Ibn Taymiyyah's statement regarding the Rafidah?

The Shaykh : No, I believe this is merely a new type of extremism, a new type of partisanship, hatred, and turning away from one another. In every Islamic group, there is good and there is evil. Judging groups, my brothers, is like judging individuals; there is no Muslim individual who possesses all the attributes of perfection, but rather some have more goodness than evil, or more evil than goodness. Even in the case where a person's evil outweighs his goodness, we should not deny the goodness that comes from him. The Muslim Brotherhood, the Tahrir Party, and the Tabligh group have good in them, but they also have deviation from Islam, either out of ignorance or negligence. Therefore, this statement is extremely dangerous. It is not permissible to utter such words; rather, it is not permissible to misguide them. We have said in some of our sessions that I do not see it as correct to say that every Shi'ite is a disbeliever. However, any Shi'ite who says that our Qur'an is the quarter of the mushaf that was lost, which is the mushaf of Fatimah, and similar words that constitute disbelief, and he believes them and worships Allah with them, that is the one we declare a disbeliever. But we do not say that all Shi'ites are disbelievers. No, that is an expression of extremism in religion. It is even more so, and even more so, to utter such words regarding the Muslim Brotherhood or other groups that are all within the circle of Islam, though some are closer to Islam than others, and some are further from Islam than others. Thus, in every group, there is good and there is smoke, as mentioned in the authentic hadith. In reality, we see that the Salafi call is the only call that unites the Muslims, because it is the call of truth upon which the righteous Salaf were. As for the other groups, they have [good] and [evil]. Therefore, it is not permissible to make such a general statement, because it involves injustice and it contradicts the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: