Is it permissible to remove the innovators from the mosque?
Question

                There are people in our masjid in charge of adhan, iqamah and khutbah. But they also do many innovations ‘bida’. We have advised them more than once, but they did not stop their innovations. 

Should we remove them from the masjid by force?.
Praise be to Allah.
    It is not permissible to expel a Muslim from the houses of 
    Allaah, even if he is an innovator, because they are houses that are built 
    to establish the remembrance and worship of Allaah. The innovator is to be 
    appreciated for his worship and will be rewarded for all the good that he 
    does for the sake of Allaah, but he incurs sin for his innovation. So it is 
    not permissible for anyone to prevent him from worshipping and obeying 
    Allaah, rather we should help him in that and encourage him to attend the 
    congregational prayers of the Muslims, in the hope that he may learn the 
    Sunnah from the people of knowledge, and give up innovated matters of 
    religion. 

    The Prophet  (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) 
    even gave permission to some of the mushrikeen to enter the mosque, as in 
    the story of Thumaamah ibn Athaal (may Allaah be pleased with him), when the 
    Prophet  (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) ordered that he be 
    tied to one of the pillars of the mosque. That was before he became Muslim, 
    and he became Muslim on the third day. He said to the Prophet  (peace 
    and blessings of Allaah be upon him): “I bear witness that there is no god 
    except Allaah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. O 
    Muhammad, by Allaah, there was no face on earth that was more hateful to me 
    than your face, but now your face has become the dearest of all faces to me. 
    By Allaah, there was no religion on earth that was more hateful to me than 
    your religion, but now your religion has become the dearest of all religions 
    to me. By Allaah, there was no city on earth that was more hateful to me 
    than your city, but now your city has become the dearest of all cities to 
    me” Narrated by al-Bukhaari (462) and Muslim (1764).   

    Look at how his staying in the mosque became a cause of his 
    being guided to Islam. How about the Muslims who take care of the 
    maintenance of the mosque, give the adhaan, deliver the khutbah and so on, 
    as mentioned in the question? 

    When Ka’b ibn Maalik stayed behind from the campaign to 
    Tabook, the Prophet  (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) ordered 
    that he be shunned and forbade the people to talk to him, and he even 
    ordered him to stay away from his wife, but he did not forbid him to attend 
    the prayers in congregation with the Muslims. 

    He (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of 
    Allaah  (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) forbade the Muslims 
    to speak to us three among those who had stayed behind. So the people 
    shunned us, or their attitude towards us changed, until it seemed to me that 
    the land itself had turned hostile towards me and was no longer the land 
    that I knew. We stayed like that for fifty days. As for my two companions, 
    they stayed in their houses weeping, but I was the youngest and strongest of 
    them. I would go out and attend the prayer, and go around in the 
    marketplaces, and no one would speak to me. I would go to the Messenger of 
    Allaah (S) and greet him with salaam, when he was sitting with the people 
    after prayer, and I would say to myself: Did his lips move in response or 
    not? Then I would pray close to him, stealing glances at him. When I focused 
    on my prayer, he would look at me, then when I looked at him he would turn 
    away.  Narrated by al-Bukhaari (2757) and Muslim (2769). 

    When the Khawaarij manifested their bid’ah (innovation) and 
    separated from the main body of the Muslims because of the idea and 
    innovations they introduced, none of the Sahaabah ordered that they be 
    removed or expelled from the mosques, because they are houses which Allaah 
    has given permission to be built and His name mentioned in them. So it is 
    not right for anyone to forbid that for which Allaah has given permission. 

    ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib said concerning the Khawaarij: “They have 
    three rights over us: that we should not initiate fighting with them so long 
    as they do not fight us; that we should not prevent them from entering the 
    mosques of Allaah to mention His name therein; and that we should not deny 
    the booty to them so long as they have fought alongside us.”

    Narrated by Ibn Abi Shaybah in al-Musannaf (7/562) 
    with a hasan isnaad. 

    What is prescribed in your case is to treat them kindly in 
    the house of Allaah, and to strive to explain the Sunnah to them by all 
    means. If you can prevent them from establishing their bid’ah, after asking 
    the scholars and making sure that this particular action is indeed bid’ah, 
    then you may prevent them from doing this bid’ah only, but you cannot 
    prevent them from entering the mosque altogether. That is subject to the 
    condition that preventing this bid’ah will not lead to trouble among the 
    Muslims or to an evil that is greater than the bid’ah that you want to 
    prevent. 

    Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) 
    said:  

    Based on this, if the person or group combines good with evil 
    in such a way that they cannot be separated, rather they will do it all or 
    abandon it all, then it is not permissible merely to enjoin good or forbid 
    evil, rather you should look and see. If the good is more prevalent, then it 
    should be enjoined, even if that will entail a lesser amount of evil, and 
    you should not forbid an evil if that means that a greater amount of good 
    will be lost. In that case, forbidding evil would be more akin to blocking 
    the path of Allaah and striving to stop people from obeying Him and His 
    Messenger, and to stop people doing good. But if the evil is more prevalent 
    then it should be forbidden, even if that means that a lesser amount of good 
    will be lost. In that case, enjoining that good which entails a greater 
    amount of evil is in fact enjoining evil and striving to disobey Allaah and 
    His Messenger. If the good and evil are equal, then you should neither 
    enjoin nor forbid, rather in some cases it will be better to enjoin (the 
    good) and in some cases it will be better to forbid (the evil), and in some 
    cases neither enjoining good nor forbidding evil will be appropriate, 
    because the good and evil are so strongly connected. 

    That has to do with specific issues. But when speaking about 
    specific actions, then good should be enjoined in general and evil should be 
    forbidden in general. 

    With regard to a single person or group, then its good should 
    be enjoined and its evil should be forbidden; its praiseworthy actions 
    should be commended and its blameworthy actions should be criticized, in 
    such a way that enjoining good will not cause most of the good to be lost or 
    a greater evil to occur, and in such a way that forbidding evil will not 
    cause a greater evil to occur or a greater good to be lost. If the matter is 
    unclear then the believer should wait until the truth is clear to him, so 
    that he will not do an act of obedience without the proper knowledge and 
    intentions. 

    End quote from Majmoo’ al-Fataawa (28/129-130); 
    al-Istiqaamah (2/217-218). 

    Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have 
    mercy on him) was asked: 

    We have Shi’ah with us at work. Is it permissible for us to 
    return their salaams? We also see them in the mosque praying on pieces of 
    paper; is it permissible to expel them from the mosque? 

    He replied: 

    I say: treat them as they treat you. If they greet you with 
    salaam, then return their salaams. It is not good to expel them from the 
    mosque, rather some of them may be from among the common folk who do not 
    know anything and have been misled by their scholars. If you are clever and 
    call them in ways that are better, you may be able to influence them. Using 
    violence is not something that is narrated in sharee’ah. Allaah loves 
    kindness in all things. Now if you oppose them and say “Do not prostrate on 
    pieces of paper, do not prostrate on stones” and the like, if the matter may 
    be settled there and they will give up these things, that is good. But (the 
    problem is that) they will persist, and the enmity and hostility between you 
    will increase. What I think you must do is advise them first, especially the 
    ordinary people. Advising does not mean attacking their madhhab and false 
    religion. No, advising means explaining the truth to them and teaching them 
    the Sunnah. Then after that, if you explain the Sunnah to them, I am 
    absolutely certain that if they have real faith, they will come back to the 
    Sunnah and give up their falsehood. If that happens, then that is better. If 
    it does not happen, then you should treat them as they treat you. As for 
    expelling them from the mosque, you have no right to do that. 

    Liqaa’aat al-Baab il-Maftooh 
    (no. 80, question no. 4). 

    Finally: 

    We should point out to you that not everyone who does an act 
    of bid’ah (innovation) is an innovator, and not everything that you regard 
    as bid’ah is necessarily an innovation. It is not permissible to take as a 
    reference point in this issue the junior seekers of knowledge or those who 
    are zealous about the Sunnah. They themselves need guidance, care and 
    advice. For example, they may think that clasping the hands to the chest 
    after rukoo’ (bowing) is a bid’ah. Do they judge the one who does that as an 
    innovator? Do they want to expel such people from the mosques? Do they know 
    that those who do that – clasping the hands to the chest after bowing – are 
    among our imams and scholars? 

    We appreciate these brothers for their enthusiasm for the 
    Sunnah, but we do not want them to let their enthusiasm make them pass 
    judgement on people or expel them from the houses of Allaah. How much we 
    have suffered from categorization of people; do we want to bring that 
    categorization into the houses of Allaah? We hope that this will not happen 
    and we hope that they will be sensible and ask – as they have done in this 
    case. Here the fatwa of the scholars is clear even with regard to extreme 
    innovators such as the Shi’ah, and we should not neglect to call them and 
    encourage them to follow the Sunnah in the way that is best. 

    And Allaah knows best.