This put him at odds with another influential faction of the Afghan Arabs the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) and its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The next group of "unbelievers" the EIJ wanted to jihad against were the self-professed Muslims of the Egyptian government and other secular Muslim governments, not Israeli Jews, European Christians or Indian Hindus. For the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, takfir against the allegedly impious Egyptian government was central, but Azzam opposed takfir of Muslims, including takfir of Muslim governments, which he believed spread fitna and disunity within the Muslim community.