Sunni scholars who have declared Shiites as deviants or apostates:

• Imam Malik — One of his most prominent students, al-Buwayti, asked if it was permissible to pray behind a Rafidi to which Malik responded in the negative. Malik defined a Rafidi as “whoever says ‘Abu Bakr and `Umar are not Imams”.
• Ibn Hazm — “Shia are not even Muslims”, when Christians debating him brought a Shia book as reference.
• Ibn Taymiya — He considered Shiites more heretical than Jews, Christians and many polytheists. Noting contemporary circumstances, he considered Shiites more harmful to the Muslim community than groups such as the Crusaders and Mongols.
• Ibn Khaldoun — “astray people”, “Shia are the source of all deviant groups in Islam history”.
• Nizam al-Mulk — where he fully attacks the Rafida. However, there are reports that says that he and Malik Shah I after a debate between Sunni and Shi’a scholars which was prepared by him by the orders of Malik Shah I resulted in converting both him and the king to the Shi’a Islam. The story is reported by the son-in-law of Nizam al-Mulk, Mughatil ibn Bakri who attended the debate.
• Manzur Nu’mani — issued a fatwa in December 1987 declaring Shia kuffar (non-believers), which was endorsed by hundreds of prominent Deobandi scholars in India and Pakistan.
• Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz — Several of his fatwas denounced Shiites as atheists and apostates, and among other rulings, forbade Sunni marriage to Shiites.
• Yusuf al-Qaradawi — After saying he had previously been misguided to pursue Sunni-Shia rapprochement, Qaradawi went on to condemn Shiites as heretics in several fatwas and praised virulently anti-Shia Saudi Sunni clerics for being “more mature and far-sighted” than himself in generally judging Shias.
• Ehsan Elahi Zaheer — Denounced the Shia as infidels and Zionist agents.
• Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak — In a “vicious” fatwa against the Shia he concluded with: “the Sunni and Shia mathhabs (beliefs) are completely contradictory and cannot be reconciled; the talk of Sunni-Shia rapprochement is utterly false.”
• Abu Basir al-Tartusi — In his fatwa against Shia, he warned Muslims to “Interact with the Shii Rejectionists as you would with a person whose very existence is full of betrayal, treachery, fury and hatred against Islam and Muslims!”
• Ali al-Khudair — In his Fatwa fi l-Shi’a, he says: “What we have today are the Rafidis [i.e., Twelvers], the Batini Isma’ilis, the Batini Nusayris, and the Batini Duruz. These four groups are the ones who deify the Al al-Bayt [i.e., the family and descendants of the Prophet Muhammad], they seek their intercession and are the worshippers of graves (quburiyyun). So these [people] are infidel polytheists (mushrikun kuffar) and are not Muslims. There is no difference [in status] between their scholars and followers (muqallidihim) or the ignorant among them (juhhalihim). They are all polytheists and are not Muslims and cannot be excused for their claim to be ignorant that they are worshipping other than God (la yu’dharan bi-l-jahl fi ‘ibadati-him li-ghayr allah).”
• Imam Ash-Sha’bi — “The Rafida are the Jews of this nation. They hate Islam as the Jews hate Christianity. They embraced Islam, not because they longed for it or because they feared Allah, but because they detested the Muslims and intended to overpower them.”
• Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — In one of his fatwas, he accused Shiites of shirk (polytheism) because of their cult of the saints, which included the adoration of figures such as Ali and Husayn and the veneration of tombs and shrines.
• Shah Waliullah Dehlawi — He believed that the Shia interpretation and practices of Islam should be discarded, since they greatly misguide people.

There are Sunni fatwas that were considered Sunni obligation to the “insult offered to the Sunni faith by the Shia religious literature.” This is demonstrated in the case of some Sunni fatwas, which were considered as defensive materials created for the purpose of defending the faith from the Shia. The latter’s mere existence in the country within the context of these specific fatwas was considered as an insult.