[1] Although the group was crushed by Egyptian security forces after it murdered an Islamic scholar and former government minister in 1977, it is said to have "left an enduring legacy" taken up by some Islamist radicals in "subsequent years and decades.

"[2] The label "Takfir wal-Hijra" ("excommunication and exodus") was from the start a derogatory term used by the official Egyptian press media when talking about the cult group Jama'at al-Muslimin.

Hijra means flight or emigration or leaving, specifically the migration of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca where they were being persecuted, to the city of Medina.

[3] Politics portal Takfir wal-Hijra has been described as "a matrix of terrorist cells - allied to bin Laden but often more extreme than him,"[4] and as a group which inspired "some of the tactics and methods used by Al Qaeda and whose ideology is being embraced by a growing number of Salafist jihadists living in Europe.

"[5] Described as a movement that began in Egypt in 1971, by the 1990s it has been described as a "decentralised network" of "cells",[6] and as a "radical ideology" and "web of Islamic militants around the world connected only by their beliefs" (rather than "an organization per se").

[8] According to Mamoun Fandy, an Egyptian-born professor of politics and senior fellow at the Baker Institute of Public Policy, followers are allowed to shave their beards, drink alcohol, visit topless bars and commit crimes against Westerners — all under the cloak of subterfuge.

Takfir wal-Hijra grew substantially through the 1990s as "Afghan Arabs" returned from Afghanistan to their homes in the Middle East and North Africa and spread their doctrines, establishing a "decentralised network of believers" that has been active "throughout Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan and Sudan.

[2] Hayder Mili of Jamestown Foundation states that Takfir wal-Hijra has been responsible for "at least five attacks" on worshippers at mosques in Sudan from 1994 to 2006, resulting "in scores of fatalities and hundreds of injuries".

On 7 February 2011, RPG-wielding militants identified as members of Takfir wal-Hijra carried out an attack in Rafah, Egypt, leading to a two-hour battle with Egyptian security forces and local tribesmen in which two people were reported injured.