The Khalifites are, thankfully, a group one does not encounter often as a Muslim these days, but they seem to come in waves when they appear. In the mid-1990s, during the heyday of the old Usenet newsgroups (apologies to any old ARPAnet hands who think Usenet's real heyday was back in the 1980s or earlier), they briefly hijacked the group soc.religion.islam (see this article, originally posted there in 1995, and this, by a Salafi, posted in 1996). They are a group founded by Rashad Khalifa, an Egyptian (allegedly, originally Copic Christian) immigrant to the USA, which believes in some sort of mathematical miracle in the structure of the Qur'an, and when they found two verses which allegedly did not conform to it, they pronounced that they should be excluded. They also totally reject the Sunnah, claiming that it is nothing but a load of hearsay. The group has a week's residency at the New Statesman's Faith Column (last week, it was the turn of a representative of the Alevis of Turkey), which means they will get the benefit of a bit more publicity.
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Suspect Paki » Blog Archive » Ahmadiyya Intellectual Cowardice
I was intrigued to discover that the Qadiani (so-called Ahmadiyya) cult, which follows the notorious fake prophet Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who deceived a few thousand with his outlandish claims in the early 20th century, has resorted to $cientology-like tactics to bring down someone who exposes their falsehoods. Yep, they resorted to copyright law, as the CO$ did in the 1990s when people were posting their bizarre "secret scriptures" to Usenet. (Hat tip: DrM.)
This is not the first time I've heard of "religious authorities" sitting on their scripture - it was the standard practice of the medieval Christian priesthood - but it's the first time I've heard of such behaviour by so-called Muslims. While many Muslim scholars do approve of religious textbooks being copyrighted to protect the living of their authors and translators, it is absurd to copyright and thus monopolise the works of a so-called prophet. Sayyiduna 'Umar (radhi Allahu 'anhu) is quoted as saying "let the Sunna go forth and do not stop it with opinions", so clearly this isn't an ideal for Qadianis, which isno bad thing as we don't want everybody calling each other "son of a whore" any time someone disagrees with them.
