Muhammad Husayn al-Dhahabi (October 19, 1915 — July 7, 1977) was an

Al-Azhar Al-Azhar Mosque ( ar, الجامع الأزهر, al-Jāmiʿ al-ʾAzhar, lit=The Resplendent Congregational Mosque, arz, جامع الأزهر, Gāmiʿ el-ʾazhar), known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the historic ...

scholar and the former Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments. He was a critic of the militant jihadist movement that had splintered from the mainstream

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

. On July 3, 1977, he was kidnapped by the radical group

Takfir wal-Hijra ''Takfir wal-Hijra'' ( ar, تكفير والهجرة, translation: "Excommunication and Exodus", alternatively "excommunication and emigration" or "anathema and exile"), was the popular name given to a radical Islamist group ''Jama'at al-Muslim ...

, who held him hostage and demanded the release of imprisoned members of their movement. Marc Sageman, ''Understanding Terror Networks'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004) p.29 When their demand was not met, they executed al-Dhahabi. Following his execution, the government of

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

cracked down on militant Islamic organizations in Egypt.

References

{{Reflist 20th-century Egyptian politicians Egyptian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Endowments Ministers of Egypt