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An interview with Imam Zaid Shakir by W Ali
Times read: 4840 TalkBacks: 6 Feb 14, 2008
Clashing Civilizations
Many of his students refer to him as the “new Malcolm X for Muslim Americans.� Trying to obtain an interview with the “new Malcolm� requires persistence, patience, and several callbacks. “He had an unexpected speech, can we re-schedule?� “Sorry, he’s completely booked for the next week. Can you all call again?� “O.K., he can squeeze in some time at 9 a.m., can you do that?�
Imam Zaid Shakir, an African American convert to Islam and one of the most influential and popular Muslim American religious scholars, commands a rock star following: legions of enthralled and inspired Muslims filling rooms to standing only capacity waiting to hear his words. It represents a fascinating and dynamic phenomenon illuminating the resurgent identity of an educated, spiritual, religious and political Muslim American identity emerging from the post 9-11 era. Shakir, a student of the civil rights era and an educated scholar of political science and traditional Islamic jurisprudence, casually interjects tidbits of political theory, economic reform, critical race theory, Arabic, traditional Islamic philosophy and religious didacticism within his rhetoric.
I was lucky to talk to the highly sought scholar for an honest, informative and in depth discussion on “the Clash of Civilizations,� the 2008 presidency, religious extremism, and an emerging Muslim American identity.
ALI: I want to repeat a section from your most recent essay regarding the presidential elections:
“As long as we politely skirt the fundamental problems plaguing our country, starting with the superficiality of our race relations, Obama’s candidacy and possible election do not represent any real change, they represent a re-entrenched status quo, and illustrate the sort of duplicity that would hound Dr. King as a traitor and communist at the end. The election of an African American, or a woman for that matter, without an associated “revolution of values� will do no more than possibly delay, but will not stave off, this country’s inevitable spiritual demise.�
What exactly, in your opinion, comprises a true “revolution of values� within the modern American political and cultural climate?
SHAKIR: I think a true revolution of values would include having the ability to consider the interests of people nationally and internationally. And on the basis of that ability being able to deem certain policies that historically have been an integral part of American political life – as being unacceptable. Right now, here in California and in other states, we are facing a massive fiscal crisis. There are massive budget cuts. Immediately, there are talks of cutting education, cutting therapeutic and preventive programs for the youth and for poor people. But, there is no discussion of cutting the military budget and changing our foreign policy.
Those are clear domestic implications that accrue from billions of dollar spent on the war. If you spend that much money on the war, you have trouble finding money for other things requiring far less expenditures. The values that don’t challenge the war machine dictate that we will have an unending series of boogeyman to go after. They might be Muslim – in recent history most of them have been Muslim, but not necessarily and not all of them amongst the list of the people we’ve chosen to demonize and then justify military action against. I mean in the ‘80’s, we had Maurice Bishop – that threatening, potential superpower of Grenada.
ALI: (Laughs) Right.
SHAKIR: We had Manuel Noriega of Panama. We burned an entire quarter of the city just to potentially kill him, and as to be expected, he wasn’t harmed, but a large section of Panama City was burned down. When it was over – from that misadventure –we had over 3,000 dead people. So, these boogeyman, most of whom are friends and associates and operatives and assets however you want to term it, at one point of their career might not necessarily be Muslim.
At one time it was Khomeini, then it was Maurice Bishop, then Noriega, now it’s Ahmedinajad. Who is it going to be tomorrow? Who knows? But it will be someone because of the logic of maintaining that “machine�, the logic of renewing those contracts dictates that those armaments have to be used, those bombs have to be dropped, those bombs have to be dispatched, those cruise missiles have to be launched. Otherwise, those companies that make them will go out of business.
So when you have this massive business, this massive infrastructure, this massive expenditure and massive profiteering that goes on during war, then there is tremendous international and domestic consequences. So, a revolution of values would have to challenge the complacency with this arrangement. A revolution of values will have to give equal value to every human life. We can’t just determine that the lives of some people, like the lives of Muslims in Sudan might be “worth� saving lives of Muslims in Somalia – where we have almost single handedly one of the gravest humanitarian crisis in Africa today by facilitating and encouraging the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia which undermined one of the few periods of stability they had in recent history. So Somalian lives don’t matter , so we can impose situations on them that will lead them to starvation and refugee status. But, the lives of Muslims in Darfur matter because the politics play out in a different matter, or, the lives of Muslims in Darfur matter, but the lives of non-Muslims in Congo don’t matter. They’ve been dying at far more horrifying rates due to that ongoing conflagration.
We need to give equal value to all human beings. Unless we do that, we will ignore some situations where there is tremendous human suffering, and address other situations where there might be suffering of a lesser magnitude. I’m not justifying that some suffering is more justified than others. It’s all bad is what I’m saying. Unless we have a view of life that it is all bad and that it is all unacceptable, and that we wont engage in policies that encourage it here but discourage that suffering there, but instead, we will do something that will discourage suffering everywhere.
This is a human project. As human beings, we must seriously challenge the idea of “the national interest.� I seriously believe the whole idea of the “nation state� is an outdated and atavistic concept. It had its day, it served its purpose, but now due to the nature of the world, the shrinking of the world, globalization, integration, modern communications, we literally now live in a global village. So, now we must seriously consider a political arrangement that transcends the nation state. Right now, the nation state is for the elite who dominate the state. That might be here in U.S., in Saudi Arabia, in Europe, in Kenya – the elite that dominate the nation state. It’s an arrangement that the nation state monopolizes the legitimate use of force where that aspect is used to protect and advance the interest of those elites who dominate the state.
If we thought in global terms, in universal terms, we wouldn’t hesitate to begin to make serious changes in the way we do things here as it relates to the economic and ecological damage that ensues from the American way of life. Unless we can begin to think in human terms and develop ideas of human interests to replace national ideas, I think we are in for more of the same.
ALI: Let’s relate these ideas to the current political climate. The Muslims came out en masse in 2000 and voted for Bush as an interest group. In 2004, they went for Kerry. Now, most are confused looking for direction. In light of what you just said, what is the best option for Muslim Americans in the 2008 election? Furthermore, is a Muslim interest group, a voting majority if you will, the next political step for Muslim Americans in flexing their cultural muscle? Is there some hope their voices will be heard and it will resonate in changed foreign and domestic policy, or are these votes simply wasted on candidates who will do nothing to change the conditions of prejudice, exclusionism, and war mongering?
SHAKIR: I think it’s a flawed system. One of the flaws is that there is no proportional representation. That virtually eliminates minor parties and political actions no matter how attractive their message might be. Some Muslims are attracted to the policies of Ron Paul, but they know he is not electable. Some Muslims are attracted to Dennis Kucinich on principle, but they realize he is not electable. So, a lot of Muslims are attracted to Obama. In that article you quoted, I wasn’t trying to attack Obama or discourage Muslims from attacking Obama. I was making the point that this is the same attitude towards race that manifested itself in a sort of duplicity that was used to assess the career of Dr. King: of what were acceptable actions worthy of being “glorified� with a national holiday and what were unacceptable actions that we don’t even talk about in the mainstream.
That sort of duplicity determines the viability or lack of viability of Obama as a candidate. That was the main point I was trying to make. I think Muslims first of all must ask if we are going to see ourselves as a progressive, social group looking at the interests of Muslims in the progressive sense, or are we looking at ourselves as a progressive human group who are looking at the interest of humanity and then using our potential strength in the political process?
First of all we have to sit down and hammer out an agenda. If you don’t do that, then it’s meaningless. It’s meaningless for half of Muslims to vote for Clinton in one primary, and then half for Obama in another primary. Each side neutralizes the other half. Or, at end of the day, half the Muslims fear Republicans will bring more wars in Middle East, but they are attracted to conservative moral values, then half vote for McCain and other half for Romney. It becomes meaningless. So, if we’re just merely participating in the political system to fulfill one’s civic duties, then there can be other ways of doing that other than voting. Voting is not the only way. It is not the end all of political participation, and voting in national campaigns, specifically, there are other ways to be politically active and make a positive impact in someone’s life.
If we are going to participate in these national contests, the first thing is incumbent on us to do is sit down, talk, and
I think there is promise in Obama based on some of his pronouncements.
first of all determine why are we in this: to advance a system that will ensure greater liberty and even greater freedom to practice Islam? If that is our priority then we will find ourselves making political alliances with groups whom we have fundamental differences with in terms of our core values, such as gay and lesbian groups. Our strategy would dictate we are cooperating with gay people because the same sort of liberties and constitutional guarantees that would ensure the right of gay people to do their thing and function and exist in this society without the threat of physical violence, hate speech being aired to encourage violence against their group, those sort of policies would provide us protection as Muslims.
It’s very important for us if we are saying we are specifically looking at policies that will ensure to most successfully raise our children and pass on our core values. Then, we might be inclined to vote Republican, because we can say, “Well, we don’t really care because it doesn’t immediately affect me if this is basically a vote for the perpetuation of the war machine.� That’s why it’s very important to sit down and hammer out what are the core values that we want to emphasize in terms of committing ourselves to a political candidate. We might even want to exercise a punitive vote, we make sure those groups that support policies that are antithetical to Muslims, we make sure they move out and we don’t care who wins.
ALI: So who does Imam Zaid Shakir say is the candidate to support in 2008?
SHAKIR: I think there is promise in Obama based on some of his pronouncements. And perhaps what I mention about race relations is that it won’t scuttle his candidacy, but that remains to be seen. I’m still honestly looking at this situation and assessing where it would be best to place a particular emphasis. But, it’s slim pickings out there.
ALI: A sexy term that has been used and abused for the past 10 years is the “Clash of Civilizations.� We’ve seen the rise of Anti Americanism in the Muslim world, the war against Iraq, the racist diatribes of certain pundits against brown folk and Muslims, the anti Semitism and prejudice of Muslims towards certain Europeans and Jews; we see terrorists in London: Pakistani, Britain doctors; we see educated Arabs attacking the WTC; we see extremists murdering Dutch filmmakers and people violently protesting cartoons; we hear about Muslim terrorists in Spain, in Indonesia, in Pakistan; we hear Muslims say “Islam means Peace.� In face of all these examples, isn’t “Islam is Peace� just empty rhetoric? How do you, or can you, if at all, convince the masses that Islam is anything but violent and reactionary, and that we are not in the throngs of a clash of civilizations?
SHAKIR: I definitely don’t believe there is this clash of civilizations going on for a number of reasons. Number 1: Islam and Christianity are articulations of the same civilization, basically. Meaning that in the classical manifestation they are rooted in Hellenistic traditions. Classical Islamic thought was, philosophically, predicated on Aristotelian logic and Neo-Platonic philosophy. That was the same basis for Christian scholasticism. If you look at the Christian doctrine, you’ll find many Christian theologians, such as St Augustine, saying verbatim what Muslims were saying. They’re saying the same thing. They were both rooted in the same area of the world, the Mediterranean. If you go further East, you hit the Mesopotamian, similar in terms of influence. Then, you look at the work of Muslims in Spain and Sicily and the establishment of Islamic universities. They were a direct inspiration for and had seeds of the European Renaissance. So, if you look at these two religions if you will, they are articulations of the same civilization: they are rooted in monotheism.
So, it would be very difficult, historically, to determine and separate these two. They developed in the same part of the world: socially, culturally in terms of their core values, I mean there are very little differences between a Palestinian Muslim and a Palestinian Christian.
This whole idea of neatly, compartmentalized, cultural regions and then setting up a clash between them - the world just doesn’t work like that. So, scholars like Samuel Huntington advance this whole idea of a civilization clash, revising historian Bernard Lewis’ ideas in the early 90’s. Lewis focuses on the fall of the Soviet Union that unleashed the forces of the clash, if you will. He was also writing in the immediate aftermath of the first Gulf War. It behooves them to analyze that on the basis of this Clash theory. If they did, it would not argue favorably in support of the theory.
You have Christians and Muslims coming to together not to fight each other, but to fight against 3rd parties. You have the British and the Americans joining with the Kuwaitis and Saudis fighting against the Iraqis. You see the main supporters of the Iraqis are the Russians and to a lesser extent the French. The world is filled with nuances, with gray areas that defy these terms.
Also, if you are talking about a Clash of Civilization, you should be able to demonstrate it historically in terms of some of the theories, sub theories if you will, associated with the main theory. One of them is that sharing a common civilization mitigates the intensity of wars that do occur. Recent history rejects that idea. The first and second World War, focusing on Christian Europeans mostly fighting against Christians, was among the most bloody conflagrations this world has ever witnessed. The Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988 was one of the most costly conflagrations in terms of loss of life that the Muslim world has experienced. So, where is the mitigating effect of sharing a common civilization? So, it’s very important to look at things as they are and take the time to work through the nuances and understand the complexities.
ALI: In spite of all this, you must realize many people say and will say, “Even if what you say is correct that Islam has science, a rich civilization, poetry, arts, Rumi, Sufism –fine, we’ll accept that, it’s granted. Nonetheless, we still have terrorists, Muslim terrorists in the 21st century. Where did Islam’s spirituality go? Why is Islam’s piety now measured by radical extremism and political militancy?�
SHAKIR: Well, again, we have to look deeper than the surface. I believe what you said is very relevant. Why do we have this problem in the 21st century – emanating from some Muslim individuals? I was talking about it in the context of a “civilization,� which is bigger than an individual, an individual terrorist, or radicals, or small cells of potential terrorists and radicals whose radicalism pushes them to violence. A civilization is bigger than that.
A more telling question getting to the root of it is the following: Is this Islam or is this individuals and groups who’ve been radicalized? In the New York Times, even Fouad Ajami raises the questions that these terrorists might not be possessors of a whole civilization. My response is that they are not the possessors of any civilization. They’ve been radicalized by social forces, by economic forces, by political forces that they have very little control over.
An aspect of radicalism is the realization of marginalization. The realization that there is no larger venue, if you will, whereby one can begin to think of influencing the politics that are leading to one’s frustration. So they think they can’t rely on any nation state actors, so if we have a “clash of civilizations� then where are the nation states that are mobilizing millions of Muslims, not just a few a thousand Muslims? Where are the nation states that are mobilizing millions of Muslims telling them to expand their civilization at the expense of other civilizations, or to undo civilizations that don’t represent their values and teachings of Islam? Where is that happening? That’s what I’m saying: Civilizations are large, deep, historical forces. They are not small groups.
So, it’s one thing to quote verses from the Quran or traditions from the Prophet to justify one’s actions, but it is another thing to say these are the reasons for taking these actions. If Islam wasn’t there or the Quran, the forces of globalization, of political occupation and domination, would push many individuals associated with these groups to act anyway and justify it the way the Tamil Tigers justify it in their response to foreign occupation and domination of another religion. Or, how some of the youth in Kenya justify it by believing it to be an encroachment of their rights and undermining of their participation in the political process. These are just some examples of political violence, some which involve extreme reactions like the suicide bombing campaign in the past of Tamil Tigers in a group where there is no Islam. So, in the Muslim world if there was no Islam, you’d still have a lot of these radical responses because the underlying socio-political forces that are pushing people to act in desperate ways, they would still be there. And humans beings, at the end of the day, are human beings.
ALI: Speaking of “modernity� and continuing on the ramifications of your comments, we have this assumption that Islam is incapable of adapting to modern times. In fact, many suggest the Muslim reliance on following the traditions of the Prophet and his companions is turning the clock back 1400 years. Thus, they think this is proof of Muslims as relics of a fossilized age incapable of adapting to a modern age. Thus, Islam is stunted and not compatible with the problems of modern era. Muslims trying to be Muslims according to the ideology of Islam is akin to burying one’s head in the sand as the world passes them by. People say evidence of this is the scientific and technological advancement of Europe and the technological decline of Muslims. What’s your response to that assumption?
SHAKIR: The technological advancement of Europe, which was an anomaly in human affairs, hasn’t just rendered the Muslims backwards and non competitive, but it also has rendered parts of Latin American “backwards.� Those are Christians, Catholics in Latin America. So, if you look at it and make comparisons between Muslim nations such as Turkey, and the comparisons in technological sophistication between oil rich nations such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and even Iraq before the war, then not Islam but the war set it back thousand wars. If you compare the oil producing nations in the Muslim world with oil producing nations in the non-European parts of Africa or Asia, then you find Muslims are extremely competitive. So, it’s unfair to make a comparison between
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Islam and Europe, or Muslims and Europe. You compare the technological advancements of Europe to Muslims in the third world, but you don’t make comparisons between Muslim and non Muslim people in the third world – to do that makes the point that Islam, specially, is responsible for their backwardness. The same forces that render Guatemala or Costa Rica or Uruguay or Paraguay – the same forces that render those nations backwards are the same forces that render Muslim nations backwards.
ALI: Let’s take it from a globalized view to a more personalized view, the actual practice of the religion itself. People say Muslims follow a religion that is now 1400 years old; they still don’t eat pork, they are averse to interest; they have long beards and wear traditional dress; they are relying on this crutch of a 1400 year old tradition, thus even in the practice of their religion they are incompatible with “Modernity.� Your thoughts?
SHAKIR: I would say “Alhamdulilah.� May Allah bless Muslims to be incompatible, because these Muslims are able to have some grounding to give meaning to their lives in many instances. Suppose there was no Islam in Iraq - You’d probably have massive suicides after a million of their people have been killed, after four million people have been internally and externally displaced, after their entire modern nation state with its education, farming institutions, exports to other nations, agricultural produce and oil, technological advancements: they have all been leveled and unraveled.
To be placed under United Nations sanctions and watching a million of your children die, half a million admitted to by then Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Watching your babies die, being forced to drink sewage infested water because your sewage treatment facilities have been bombed. If you didn’t have Islam there to give people their sense of spiritual grounding, I mean, no telling what you’d have there in terms of the types of resistance and suicide rates you might have. So, Islam has given Muslims a lot of spiritual grounding.
I think a lot of informed religious people have privately said, and I’ve heard this myself, that you should be thankful you haven’t had this type of enlightenment, because it has destroyed our religion. The issue of “modernity� is a function of modernization in a technological and industrial sense, which is largely based on where you are situated in a European dominated global economy. If in that economy, you are situated in a place that, for a number of reasons, allows you to make advances in technology, then it doesn’t matter if you are Muslim, or Christian, or whomever you are.
You can look at close similarities at Turkey and Brazil in terms of industrialization and the factors that undermined their efforts to industrialize. Another comparison between Venezuela – in terms of what they could do with their oil wealth and the realm of possibilities available to them – and Iran, which was fairly populous like Venezuela, but what they were able to do. Look at a small oil producing country and its ability to translate that wealth into a large degree of infrastructure and development, and make comparisons to small Muslim and non Muslim countries without that regard.
You can see what lack of religion had led to some people to in terms of psychological trauma they are experiencing, in terms of alienation. How did the whole social fabric of Rwanda fall apart and lead people to kill each other in the massive numbers you see? No external intervening cause for that. Why hasn’t a Muslim country gone through that genocidal episode? So, there are lot of positives thing you can point to that Islam has contributed. Praying 5 times a day isn’t a crutch that will keep people from modernizing. There are lot of deep historical forces that determined who modernized.
To take this question a little deeper, many students of history have noted that if not for the bubonic plague that broke out in the 14th century, many assume that Muslims would have been the first nations to “modernize.� Why? All the factors were there: Muslims were at the heart of the globalized trading system extending from Scandinavia to China, whose heart lay in Egypt. The Muslim Middle East had the silk roads which converged with all the sea routes. Muslims experienced tremendous and very elevated scientific thinking at the time. What broke this momentum? The bubonic plague that traveled throughout the system and hit the core of the system, the heart of the Middle East, it devastated the heartland. Because of the nature of the settlement patterns in Europe, the impact wasn’t as severe, thus that region was able to be the first to rebound from that age and enter into a process that aided development.
The plague had a negative impact on the momentum of Muslim technological advance that was developing. Another totally unexpected development was the massive source of gold and silver from the New World. Europeans were able to exploit that new, unexpected source of wealth. Not only unexpected, but totally free! It was being taken completely for free. Then, you also add to that the colonization of the New World and the development and use of slave labor, free labor in developing the economic resources of the colonies of the New World. All of that wealth: the gold, the produce of slave labor, all of that coming to Western Europe where at that time the primary Muslim actor, such as the Ottoman State, was experiencing a fiscal crisis. All this money was invested in research and development, money used to orchestrate dominant trade relations with other partners – all of that is occurring at one time. So, there are a lot of deeper historical factors that aided the advancement of Europe and that worked against other nations when that money was discovered. Viable economic relations were developed exclusively between Western Europe and the new colonies of the Americas. Muslims used to be the heart of the trading region, now they belong at the periphery. Western Europe, which was at the periphery, now is the heart between the Muslim world and the new Americas.
In 1453, when Constantinople was captured, the Muslims did it because like the French they adopted the use of cannon technology that other Hungarians and other Christian powers were developing. There was no hesitation to adapt that technology. So, what happened that destroyed that willingness to adapt, that willingness to adjust to current situations? What undermined that? Something happened to change the attitude. So, there is a lot of work and study we have to do if we are going to conclude what are the real factors that can answer any of these questions. Many times we find that religion is not the sole, determining factor, it is a factor, but in many instances it is not central factor.
ALI: I need to address this controversial New York Times quotation attributed to you: “Every Muslim who is honest would say, I would like to see America become a Muslim country," he said. "I think it would help people, and if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be a Muslim. Because Islam helped me as a person, and it's helped a lot of people in my community." Doesn’t this reaffirm and justify the fear of Americans that Muslims in America are loyal only to Islam, and their ultimate goal is the complete “Islamisation� of America, thus making Muslims and their culture incompatible with democracy and the “West?�
SHAKIR: (Sarcastically) Uh, no. That was part of what I said. This reporter was with us for 3 months, so there’s a lot of cherry picking there. That quote, if you see what preceded that, is in the context of a very structured – I mean – if you see the quotation marks “quote� “unquote� “quote� “unquote� introducing very evocative ideas that I didn’t mention at all, such as the Taliban and Sharia – and then contextualising that to give that impression.
What I said was I respect the right of all people to make the decision about how they want to live their life. As a Muslim, I’d want every Muslim to be a Muslim, and I think every Muslim would feel that way. But, I respect the right of a Christian to believe the same thing. I think every Christian wants everyone to be “saved� so everyone can go to heaven. Everyone should be free to choose whatever they want to believe. That’s what I said. If that statement is problematic then the 1st amendment is problematic.
All I’m saying is everyone should be free to advance their ideas and to accept or reject the ideas of others. Period. That’s all I was saying. When I said that there wasn’t any controversy. I specifically said this to this reporter that I made the same statement at an Inter-faith conference in the context of sitting on panel with representatives of other religions. That was the origin of that statement. I said “We’re all here and we are presenting our ideas. As a Muslim, I’d like all of you to become Muslims. But as Christians, I respect you might want everyone to be Christians. But what is important for us is to be able to share our ideas and work for a system where people can be free to choose.
ALI: There is a problem of race relations within the Muslim American community: Muslim on Muslim crime, if you will. Often most Muslim conferences talk about “Unity� yet we traffic in stereotyping and racial prejudice that is rampant within the American Muslim citizenry. What causes this?
SHAKIR: As Muslims in this country there are lots of factors that work to create divisions at a fundamental level between communities whose populations are rooted in immigration and communities of converts: African Americans primarily, but increasingly Latino and Caucasian-American. From an immigrant perspective you have people in many instances who are coming to America, who have been, historically, attracted to her through “brain drain politics.�
People who were successful on their own right, people able to pass very rigid entrance exams in their respective countries; they were very privileged and talented individuals. When coming to this country, they found the universities to be very receptive, and the brightest were given scholarships and education. When you have that degree of talent, it becomes very easy to assume anyone, who just works hard and gets ahead, makes it the way “I made it� - and not to look at the some of the factors that work against everyone getting ahead just like in the country where you come from. In that country, there were, say, only 5000 seats for education, but there were millions who couldn’t pass the high school exams, and millions who couldn’t pass the junior high exams.
So, there is a
It’s one thing to quote verses from the Quran or traditions from the Prophet to justify one’s actions, but it is another thing to say these are the reasons for taking these actions.
tendency when one is successful to forget the realities that render a lot of people unsuccessful – to use those terms. Coming with those attitudes and seeing people whom you assume had the same opportunities you had in this land of opportunity – it works towards creating very narrow minded attitudes that are very shallow in terms of really understanding the dynamics at work in the lives of many people from different racial, ethnic groups. Those prejudices play themselves out in the mosques.
In addition, many of our societies are plagued by racialized thinking. You see a lot of color consciousness in a lot of Muslim societies: Syria and to a lesser extent Sudan. Pakistan and India where lighter skin people are looked in a different light than darker people. The daughter who has lighter skin, even if her features aren’t as attractive as the darker skinned daughter, she gets all the marriage proposals.
ALI: She’s the number one draft pick.
SHAKIR: Yeah, so then you come to this country and you see a lot of African American Muslims and you have this built in mechanism to project the inherent, intrinsic racialist, racist attitudes towards those people. These create a lot of discomfort when the 2 groups come together and this is perceivable. Especially at those who are considered to be at the lower end of the economic spectrum. It is very important for Muslims to acknowledge this and not be in a state of denial regarding a lot of these racialist attitudes, color consciousness, and social economic snobbishness – it’s real!
You have those attitudes, you have that tension, and then you have a desire to exclusively pursue those interests. Each group is pursuing its respective interest and not looking at how coming together in certain areas could strengthen certain communities, especially in this indigenous, racial divide. So, when each group is selfish, then the everyday life activity and organizational activities of the other group becomes irrelevant.
You get a phenomenon like 40,000 people in Chicago for an ISNA conference and less than 1% of that is African American Muslims, even though 35% of American Muslims are African American. Or, you have Warith Deen Muhammad’s convention and over 99% of attendees are African American, because people feel it is relevant to their circumstance and identity. We have, as Muslims, stagnated ourselves in terms of how we organize ourselves, our interests and those advancements that deepen these divisions. We need to transcend this because we have so many ways we can help each other and strengthen each other.
Malcolm X when he went to Hajj had an observation that I don’t deny: that people of different groups tend to congregate and gravitate towards ones who are similar. Urdu speakers go to Urdu speakers, Spanish speakers go to people who speak Spanish for example. Should there be a level where we can recognize this and even celebrate it? This is part of what the Quranic message encourages: “We made you into nations and tribes.� It’s a reality; it’s a cultural reality. But shouldn’t there be a higher level where we can identify some common issues that no individual group or no individual ethnic collectivity has the power to address individually? And then come together at that level to those larger issues that affect all of us? So, it’s important for us to mature to a point, where as you said, as opposed to empty cries for unity that totally ignore the sociological basis of the separation that exists in the community are replaced by a mature call for creating common agendas that don’t seek to eradicate the existing divisions, but seek to glorify and celebrate those divisions.
But, on the other hand, look at a higher level of interest where our collective resources are needed. For example, challenging the spread of prejudicial and hateful attitudes towards Muslims: that’s a massive project. The people spreading those ideas are spending lots of money, publishing books, dominating talk radio, getting their voices on major media outlets like Fox and others. So, to compete on that level and put out a countervailing message, is going to take a tremendous amount of resources that no one community possess. It will taken a common agenda, a common message, a common strategy and pooling of resources, such as a nationwide legal endowment with lawyers on retainer with ongoing research into civil rights and human rights issues that are relevant to Muslims in this country – like a NAACP legal fund but for rights of all Muslims. Responses as a community to those situations in a very effective manner: fueled jet plains loaded with resources to supply medicine ready to fly anywhere in the world for example. That’s what we are capable of doing as Muslims if we are to come together and think at a higher level and not confine our activism to issues that are specifically germane to “my corner and segment� of the Muslim community
ALI: Most know that in the 2004 elections, the issue of “moral values� was statistically shown to be the most important issue for voters. However, what was underreported was that under moral values, “materialism� beat out gay marriage and abortion as the most prevalent problem according to voting Americas. Discuss the materialism of America and Muslim communities and how it has, if at all, contributed to a spiritual decline?
SHAKIR: Materialism is going to the idea of a “revolution of values.� In this country, we must take a hard look at why we have such a wasteful life and what are the implications on others. Why should 5% of the world’s population be consuming 30% of the world’s resources? There’s no way we can justify that. Why do we need 3 bathrooms when the whole time we were living in our apartment with 1 bathroom there was no argument or fighting? Why do we need 11 ft ceilings when we are 6ft tall? Why do we have to drive a Hummer or an Escalade, and we say we are getting this for my wife so she can feel safe when she is only 5’6 and weighs 140 lbs? Why does she need a Hummer and why contribute to the waste that it involves?
We need to consider this Earth has a finite resource base. What examples are we setting for others? We’re saying to be successful we need 2.5 bathrooms, you need to have 2 cars. For example look at China, they are chasing the American dream, they will say, “I need 2 cars.� Look at consequences of 300 million Americans living like this, and what will happen with 1 billion Chinese living like this? 1 billion Indians? This is madness. China is literally destroying their eco-system to make the “industrial� advantages they are making. Taiwan has already destroyed their eco-system. This is sheer madness. We must realize local is better. Localized communities. We live close to places we work in, we grow our food close to communities we live in, we buy and shop close to community we live in which cuts down on the massive costs of moving and packaging goods. We must realize there is a finite amount of resources, and as Muslims one of the great objectives of our Divine Law is preserving children, to preserve the future of our children.
It’s very important to think what kind of world we are going to leave our kids, and if these children are denied the opportunity to walk in an oak or redwood forest. Their ability to even breathe might be compromised – deforestation, polluting the ocean, a tremendous drop off in Salmon and the possibility that in 5 years Chinook Salmon will be gone. To never see a salmon run, to never walk in a forest, to never see a polar bear, because they are all extinct due to our activities and our greed. It is very, very troubling. What sort of world will we leave our children? Is it all get rich quick, develop, industrialize now and forget about the consequences for future generations? That’s a dangerous attitude to take. The core value we have to change is the materialist nature of our life and the impetus to own, to shop. We have a looming recession. How are we going to stave it? We are going to give a taxpayer $600 rebate so they can go out and shop. Anytime anyone is going to get money, they are going to shop. They won’t save the money for the kids. They won’t give that money to charity, or to help the less fortunate. They will go out on a shopping spree. The whole premise is dangerous and deeply flawed and it’s important for us now to challenge those premises and look at the deep, ecological consequences of those premises.
ALI: In the end you are only one man. Yet you have millions around the globe looking up to you, following your advice, calling you the “next Malcolm X for the Muslims� – for any man this is tremendous pressure and immense weight on their shoulders. I feel like you guys are Frodo from Lord of the Rings. Surely, moments of doubt have crept in your mind and you have asked yourself “Why me?� or “I’m not worthy.� How do you confront this reality: your scholarly obligations and duties, your own weaknesses, and the weight of people’s impossible expectations thrust upon you?
SHAKIR: We had a lesson last night on just accepting whatever Allah gives you and give that it’s full right. Basically, in summarizing the text, the author said, “Be wherever Allah has placed you.� So, if you are placed in a situation with some public exposure and influence, then be responsible and do that to the best of your ability. If you are placed in obscurity, then be content with that and give that it’s full right and fulfill the right that you owe to everyone in that situation. One of the ancient sages said, “Whoever seeks to have a public face, then that person is a slave to publicity. And whoever seeks to be hidden away and be obscure, then that person is a slave to obscurity. And whoever seeks Allah, then the 2 states are equal within him and her.� We pray that we can seek Allah and that whatever we are challenged with us in this world, whether it involves fame, popularity, or shame in the eyes of people, but as long as you’re right with Allah, to give each situation it’s full right and to make Allah the ultimate objective of our striving. Not our ego, nafs. Not the pleasure of people, but the pleasure of Allah. If we are sincere in making that our attitude and orientation, no matter what Allah challenges us with, we will rise to that change. Inshallah
The opinions expressed in this article are of the author and not necessarily of Vibes.
Times read: 4840 TalkBacks: 6 Feb 14, 2008
About W Ali
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Wajahat Ali is Pakistani Muslim American who is neither a terrorist nor a saint. He is a playwright, essayist, humorist, law school graduate, and regular contributor to altmuslim.com whose work, "The Domestic Crusaders," is the first major play about Muslim Pakistani Americans living in a post 9-11 America.
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Intelligence - Inspiring
MashAllah, I had the pleasure of hearing him speak and seeing him in person at GPU last year. He has a real presence and exudes such charisma. A very inspiring man Mashallah.
Murty - Excellent!
I didnt know anything about zaid until i read his interview..he has really good idea on America and African-american ppl and he can produce good solution which is really good for America...maÅŸallah ...
Choosa - :p
He is also mashallah super tall!
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Ahmed Subhy Mansour
Web Site: www.ahmed.G3Z.com
E-Mail: mas5949@yahoo.com
Tel: (011) 703-567-9896
Summary of Qualifications
- Egyptian national with more than twenty years as a scholar of Islam with expertise in Islamic history, culture, theology, and politics
- 24 books and approximately 500 articles in Arabic; topics include the history of Wahabism in Saudi Arabia, a critique of the concepts of Jihad, bigotry and dictatorship in Muslim thought, women’s rights in the Muslim world, the reform of Egyptian education; prose fiction and screen plays
- Democracy advocate and leader in Egypt; granted political asylum in the United States in 2002 because of persecution in Egypt
- More than a decade of high profile leadership of secular democratic organizations in Egypt; created opposition to Muslim fanatics’ fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic thought; worked to protect Coptic Christians and other minorities, improve the position of women, and establish truly democratic institutions in Egypt
Education
- 1969 Graduated Al-Azhar Secondary School, Sharkeya, Egypt. Ranked fourth in country on national university entrance examination
- 1973 B.A., Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt (Muslim History, highest honors)
- 1975 M.A., Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt (Muslim History, honors)
- 1980 Ph.D., Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt (Muslim History, highest honors)
(Al-Azhar University is the oldest, largest and most prestigious religious university in the Muslim world. It controls the religious life of the Sunni Muslims around the world.)
Academic Experience
- 1973-80 Assistant Professor of Muslim History, College of Arabic Language, Al-Azhar University.
- 1980-87 Professor of Muslim History, College of Arabic Language, Al-Azhar University
- 1981-83 Secretary, History and Civilization Department, Al-Azhar University
- 1984-86 Managing Editor, Principal Spokesman and Lecturer (hat keeb),“Al-Huda Al-Nabawy� (The Guidance of the Prophet), of “Dawit Al-Hak� (Call for the Truth), Cairo, Egypt
("Al-Huda Al-Nabawy� was a religious monthly with a circulation of several thousand moderate Sunnis. During my tenure I provided religious guidance to these persons).
- Because of my unconventional scholarship, Al-Azhar University accused me of being an enemy of Islam. I was tried in its canonical court and expelled March 17, 1987. Seven months later, the Egyptian government imprisoned me for two months.
Experience as Independent Scholar of Islam and Democracy Activist
- 1991-92 Collaborated with Farog Foda to establish a new political party in Egypt, Mostakbal (The Future Party), dedicated to a secular democratic state. In June, 1992 Farog Foda was assassinated.
- 1993-present (Founding) Member of the Egyptian Society for Enlightenment
- Secretary General (Executive Officer) from 1993 to 1998
(This Society works to promote tolerance between Muslims and Christians. It provides a monthly forum and publication, Al Tan Weer, to discuss secular issues of mutual concern).
- 1993-2000 Visiting Lecturer and Consultant on Religious and Cultural Affairs for a number of secular, democratic organizations based in Egypt including The International Ibn Khaldoun Society, The Egyptian Society for Enlightenment, The International Religious Brotherhood, The Group for Democracy, The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
-1994-96 Member of the Board of Trustees, Egyptian Organization for Human Rights This organization worked to protect Egyptians from human rights offenses of the Mubarak regime and from those of terrorists within the country and abroad.
-1994-96 Founding Member of and Religion Consultant to The Popular Movement for Confronting Terrorism, Cairo, Egypt
(This organization went into the field and provided aid to victims of Muslim fanatics, especially in Upper Egypt).
- 1996-2000 Moderator, Weekly Rewak (Conference), Ibn Khaldoun Center, Cairo, Egypt
( The Ibn Khaldoun Center was unique in the Arab World. Its purpose was to advocate and model secular democratic values in the Arab world as well as Iran and Turkey).
- Through research, discussion, and dissemination, this international Center addressed four key areas of concern: religious education reform, the persecution of minorities, democracy and elections, and fanatical fundamentalism.
(In June 2000, the Egyptian government shut down the Ibn Khaldoun Center and imprisoned its Director Dr. Saad Eddin)
- 1996-present Member of and Religion Consultant to The International Ibn Khaldoun Society
(The International Ibn Khaldoun Society focuses on Muslim communities in the United States and the West. It is dedicated to spreading secular democratic values and uniting scholars to oppose Muslim fanaticism within the United States and western democracies).
- June 2000-October 2001 Pursued scholarship and cultural and political activities in the face of harassment by the Security Police and active persecution by the Mubarak Government, Cairo Egypt
- October 2001-present Independent Scholar of Islam, Washington, D.C.
- July-September 2002 Collaborated with Abdullahi A. Am Naim, School of Law, Emory University. Applied Muslim jurisprudence of the Middle Ages to Arabic history textbooks
- October-December 2002 Regan-Fascell Fellow, The National Endowment for Democracy, Washington, DC. Performed research on the roots of democracy in Islam
Publications
Books in Arabic
1. Al Sayed Al Badway: Fact Versus Superstition. Cairo, 1982.
This book exposes the true history of the most famous Muslim saint in Egypt, who died seven centuries ago. This book proves that Al Sayed Al Badawy was not a saint, or Sufi, although most Muslim Egyptians still idolize him. Rather he was a terrorist disguised as a saint to plot against the Egyptian regime. Al Sayed Al Badawy used religion to deceive the people and take over Egypt. When he failed he continued under that cover to protect his life. After his death his followers took their revenge by destroying all the Egyptian Coptic churches at once. Egyptian Muslims thought God was punishing the Christians. The book investigates that event proving that the followers of Al Badawy were criminals. Fearful that teenagers were being taught terrorist ideology and that bloodshed would ensue, the writer concluded with a call for a review and revision of Muslim traditions. No one listened and the writer was ostracized. Bloodshed between the Regime and the religious extremists began in 1992.
2. Using Religious Texts to Inform Muslim History. Cairo, 1984.
It has been unusual for scholars to discuss the actual religious life of Muslims, in the present or in their history. Objective historical or sociological research is dangerous, because it elucidates the gap between Islam as it is mentioned in the Quran and religious practices of Muslims. This book was the first step in establishing rules of research to encourage scholars to tackle Muslim history objectively. The Personality of Egypt after the Muslim Invasion (3) was an example of this methodology.
3. The Personality of Egypt after the Muslim Invasion. Cairo, 1984.
This book proves that Egypt has always “egyptized� Islam. Egyptians recast their old religious traditions in Arabic under the title of Islam, but these traditions had nothing to do with the Islam of the Prophet Mohammed. This book also proves that all Egyptians (Muslims and Christians) share the same rituals with different names, and all of these religious observances grew out of ancient Egyptian civilization.
4. The History of the Historic Sources of Arabic and Muslim Fields. Cairo, 1984.
This book discusses the methods the famous historians of the Middle Ages used to create their different historical narratives and analyzes their false stories.
5. The Fundamental Rules of Historical Research. Cairo, 1984.
This book teaches scholars of Muslim history how to discover the lacunae in Muslim history, and how to analyze these facts objectively.
6. The Invasions of the Moguls and the Crusaders in Muslim History. Cairo, 1985.
This book discusses frankly the weaknesses of the Muslim states in the Middle Ages: dictatorships, corruption, and wars between Muslim states. The writer shows how those factors encouraged the Crusaders and Moguls to invade and occupy Muslim states. This book was banned because it gives some comparisons between the Arab/Muslim state of our time and the Muslim states of the Middle Ages.
7. Separatist Movements in the History of Muslims: The Secret History of Sheeah and Sunni Movements during the Abbasy Era. Cairo, 1985.
This book analyzes the struggle between the Abbasy Sunni empire and the secret Sheeah and fanatic Sunni organizations. This book was banned because it makes some comparisons between that old struggle and the recent clash between the Arab states and their religious oppositions.
8. A History of the Cultural Development of Muslims. Cairo, 1985.
This book analyzes Muslim civilization in the Middle Ages, proving its Greek roots and the gap between it and Islamic culture as put forth in the Quran. It was banned.
9. The Muslim World Between the Early Stage and the Abbasy Caliphate. Cairo, 1985.
Muslim oral traditions were written down and codified during the Abbasy empire (750 to 1258). Most of these traditions and some of the Abbasy rulers subsequently became sacred, in spite of the contradiction between them and the early Muslims. This book was banned because it shows that contradiction and calls for reform in Muslim states to get rid of the Abbasy tradition, which has nothing to do with Islam as put forth in the Quran.
10. The Prophets in the Holy Quran. Cairo, 1985.
This book, which was banned, was the writer’s most dangerous book. It proves the human nature of the prophet Mohammed, and the contradiction between his presentation in the Quran and the images of him fabricated by Muslim fanatics. Using the Quranic verses, it demonstrates that the prophet Mohammed was not infallible, he is not the master of the prophets, and he will not intercede on behalf of Muslims on the day of judgment, as Muslims believe according to the abbasy religious traditions.
11. The Sinner Muslim: Common Mythology Regarding the Sinner Muslim. Cairo, 1987.
This book, which was banned, uses the Quran to prove that the sinner Muslim will not enter paradise, and no one will intercede to save him from Hell.
12. Egypt in the Holy Quran. Al Akhbar Newspaper, Cairo, 1990.
This book reconstructed ancient Egyptian history from the Quranic verses, focusing on the political, social and religious aspects of ancient Egyptian civilization.
13. The Quran: the Only Source of Islam and Islamic Jurisprudence (published under the title The Quran: Why? using the pseudonym Abdullah Al Khalifah) Cairo, 1990.
This book proves that the Quran is the only source of Islam. All Muslim sects have different sources, besides the Quran. They make their sources as sacred as the Quran. Sometimes some Muslims make their sources more sacred than the Quran. Some of these sources are tarnishing Islam and the prophet Mohammed. This book makes clear these divergent interpretations and calls for a reform of Muslim faith and jurisprudence based upon the primacy of the Quran. This book was banned. The extremist newspaper of the Muslim Brothers (Al Noor) divulged the true identity of the author.
14. Death in the Quran. Dar Al Shark Al Awsat, Cairo, 1990.
This book explains the facts of death as they are mentioned in the Quran. They include: the coma of death, the difference between death and sleep, the relationship between the body and the real identity of the person who occupies and controls its body, what happens to this identity or soul during sleep and in the coma of death, what happens after death and before birth, and the meaning of Al- Bazakh or the “Barrier� between this life and the hereafter. This book had a chapter explaining the Muslim superstitions about death and the contradiction between them and the Quran, but the publisher insisted on deleting it.
15. The Penalty of Apostasy. Tiba Publishing, Cairo, 1992; Al Mahrousah, 1994; Al Mothakkafoun Al Arab (The Arab Intellectuals’ Publishing Company), 2000; English translation, The International Publishing and Distributing Company, Toronto, Canada, 1998.
This book proves that there is no death sentence in Islam for the apostate, that this penalty, which is still applied, is a law created as holy canon in the Abbasy era.
16. Freedom of Speech: Islam and Muslims. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, Cairo, 1994.
This book proves that freedom of speech in Islam is unlimited, but Muslims in their history and their laws have constrained it according to political demands.
17. The Al Hisbah between the Quran and Muslims. Al Mahrousah, Cairo, 1995; Al Kahera Magazine, Cairo, 1996.
Al Hisbah is a law that separates husband and wife after accusing one or both of them of apostasy. The religious extremists used this law against Dr. Nasr Hamid Abou Zaid, a secular leader in Egypt. I had written many articles in the press campaign against them, and was asked to write a book proving that Al Hisbah has nothing to do with Islam.
18. The Torture of the Grave. Tibia, Cairo, 1996; Al Mothakkafoun Al Arab, Cairo, 2000.
This book proves that Muslim beliefs about torture in the grave after death are unfounded, that they are ancient Egyptian beliefs, which contradict Islam. The fanatic preachers usually present this belief as an Islamic tenet to terrify their audiences and control them.
19. Al Naskh in the Quran Means Writing Not Abrogating. Al Tanweer Magazine, Cairo?? 1997; Al Mahrousah, Cairo, 1998; Al Mothakkafoun Al Arab, Cairo, 2000.
This book, originally banned in 1987, proves the basic contraction between Islam and Muslim Shareeah or jurisprudence.
20. The Introduction (mokademat) of Ibn Khaldoun: A Fundamental Historical and Analytical Study. The Ibn Khaldoun Center, Cairo, 1999.
Ibn Khaldoun was a very famous Muslim scholar who died six centuries ago. He is known as the father of sociology through his Al Mokademat (The Introduction). This book analyses the details of Ibn Khaldoun’s life, his book on the history of the Muslims, and his famous Introduction. The Ibn Khaldoun Center, established by Dr. Saad Eldeen Ibraheem, the famous professor of sociology, to promote secular values, published this book to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Center and the eight centuries since the death of Ibn Khaldoun.
21. Suggestions to Revise Muslim Religion Courses in Egyptian Education to Make Egyptians More Tolerant. Ibn Khaldoun Center, Cairo, 1999.
This book was the fruit of the Ibn Khaldoun Center’s project to reform Egyptian Education to rid it of the culture of terrorism. The book was banned.
22. Religious Thought in Egypt in the Mamluke Era: Islam Versus Muslim Sufism. Ministry of Culture, Cairo, 2000.
This book shows the contradictions between Islam and the religious beliefs of the Egyptian Muslims in that time (1250-1517).
NOTE ON VARIATIONS IN CITATION FORMAT FOR BOOKS PUBLISHED:
Because of my unconventional scholarship, most Egyptian publishers refused to publish my books. Therefore I published most of my books myself, with the help of Al Akhbar Distribution Company in Cairo. When the name of the publisher is not mentioned, it means that the book was self-published and distributed by Al Akbar Company. The writer was expelled from Al Azhar University because of books 7-11. He was imprisoned because of book 11.
Articles in Arabic and English Translation
- Approximately 500 articles in newspapers, magazines and periodicals in Egypt and abroad. Some of them were translated into English. These newspapers, magazines and periodicals include:
Egyptian Newspapers: Al Ahrar [Liberals], Al Aalam Alyoum [World Today], Al Midan [The Square], Al Ahaly [The National], Al Dostour [The Constitution], Al Akhbar [The News], Al Kaherah [Cairo], Misr Al Fataah [Egypt; The Youth], Al Gomhoriah [The Republic], Al Ahram [The Pyramids]. Other Arabic Newspapers: Al Khaleej [The Gulf], The Arab Emirates; Al Watan [The Home], Kuwait
Magazines: Sutour [Lines], Hawwaa [Eve], Al Mojtamaa Almadany [Civil Society], Al Tanweer [The Enlightenment], Adab Wa Nakd [Literature and Criticism], Al Helal [The Crescent], Sawaseyah [Equality], Hokouk Al Nass [The Rights of the People], Al Mosawwer [The Illustrated]
Periodicals: Al Insan Wa Al Tatawwor, [Humans and Development], Rewak Arabic [The Arab Forum]
Book Introduction: “Introduction� to Rereading the Quran, by Jacques Baroque. Al Nadeem Publishing, Cairo, 1996. This introduction explains how the Quran was revealed to the prophet Mohammed. It also shows that the Quran was written solely by the prophet Mohammed.
Some articles in Arabic and English Translation Available on Web Site www.ahmed.G3Z.com
1. “Islam Religion of Peace�
2. “The Right of Women to Rule the Islamic State�
3. “Freedom of Speech: Islam Versus the Muslims Fanatics�
4. “Islamic History: Democracy Versus Despotism�
5. “The Islamic Consultation "Al-Shura "
6. Analytic reading in Fatwas about prhibition of smoking
7.The contradiction Between the Islamic State and the Religious State
Unpublished Books in Arabic
(The writer was unable to publish the following books for fear of persecution in Egypt.)
1. The Ritual Religious Service of the Egyptian Muslims in the Mamluke Era: Islam Versus Sufism. This book shows the contradiction between Islamic rituals and those of the Sufi Muslims in that time.
2. The Practical Moral Life of Egyptian Society in the Mamluke Era: Islam Versus Sufism. This book shows how Egyptians in that time committed crimes that they justified through reference to the Sufi saints.
3. The Political Influence of the Sufi Saints in the Mamluke Era. This book proves the negative influence of the Sufei saints in the military Mamluke regime. It compares the current Egyptian military regime and that Mamluke regime, and shows how the two regimes used the religious saints to control the people.
4. The Daily Life of Egyptians Under Shareeah (Muslim Jurisprudence) Five Centuries Ago. This book proves the crimes that happened in that time under the name of Islam.
5. The Rules Pertaining to Muslim Women: The Quran Versus the Sunni Muslim Shareeah. This three-volume study points out the contradictions between Islam and the Sunni Muslim Shareeah as they relate to women.
6. The Saudi Opposition in the Twentieth Century. This book analyzes the culture of terrorism that is upheld by both the Saudi regime and its religious Sunni opposition. It also analyzes the only contradiction between the Saudi regime and its bold opposition: the source of legitimacy for ruling the Saudi Kingdom. The writer shows that the Sunni opposition’s appeal to jihad increasingly has informed relationships between Muslims and the West.
ATTACHMENT number [1]
Outline Of twenty five years of persecution in Egypt:
As a professor at Al Azhar University, the oldest and most famous and conservative religious university in the Sunni Muslim world, I wrote five books in 1985 to reform the religious life of the Sunni Muslims. I was accused of being against Islam because I deny the intercession of the prophet Muhammad in the day of judgment, deny his infallibility, and deny that he is the best and the master of all the prophets. In March of 1987 I was fired.
(There are 10 documents for this period).
In November 1987, I was arrested, along with 24 of my followers, and accused of being a denier of the Sunna, the sayings and the deeds of the prophet Muhammad. The government claimed that my writing were a call for Muslims to abandon Islam. After two months I was released.
(There are 12 documents for this period)
I escaped to the United States, where I was welcomed by Dr. Rashad Khalifa and his mosque in Tucson, Arizona. After two months, he claimed to be a prophet and called on me to believe in his prophet hood. I refused and escaped from his mosque. He sent letters to Egypt and to Al Azhar University describing me as the assistant of the new prophet. When I returned to Egypt in October of 1988 I was again arrested, and released after two days on the condition that I not defend myself whenever the fanatics of Al Zahra attacked me. In that period (1988-1995), I was attacked so severely that I asked the court to protect me, because some of these attacks called for my death.
(There are 24 documents for this period)
From January 1996 until June 2000 I worked at the Ibn Khaldoun Center as a Muslim scholar and the moderator of the Center’s weekly forum. The Center is owned and run by Dr. Saad el deen Ibrahim, the most famous sociologist in the Arab world, who works as a professor at the American University of Cairo, and is the leader of the movement for human rights, civil society and liberal culture in the Arab world. As an American citizen and part-time counselor of President Mubarak, Dr. Ibrahim has had a large influence in Egypt in the 1990s. Because of his rank, we were encouraged in the Khaldoun Center’s weekly forum to discuss frankly many sensitive and difficult issues, but I was severely attacked by religious fanatics.
(There are 10 documents for this period)
My life was in real danger after I wrote a book as a project for the Ibn Khaldoun Center on reforming the Egyptian education system to make it more tolerant. I was severely attacked in the Egyptian parliament because of my book, which suggested that the fanatical ideas inside the religious courses of the Egyptian educational system should be changed.
(There are 31 documents for this period)
Because of high-level problems between Dr. Ibrahim and President Mubarak, Dr. Ibrahim has been arrested and the Center shut down. Because of this, I was in serious danger. I explained the situation to officials in the US embassy in Cairo and gave them the documents to prove my grave situation. Before the arrest of Dr. Ibrahim, some of my relatives were arrested. The government kept asking them what they know about the Center and me, my ideas, and my connections. I wrote a complaint and gave a copy to Dr. Ibrahim, asking his help to save my relatives. Dr. Ibrahim was so angry that he asked me to submit this complaint to President Mubarak himself, and he promised to do his best in helping my relatives. After that, he told me to contact someone in the security service who would remove the pressure on my family. I went to that office, and was told that it was better for me and my family to abandon Dr. Ibrahim and his center. I informed Dr. Ibrahim, and two weeks later he was arrested.
I spent more than 14 months after the arrest of Dr. Ibrahim in isolation, expecting my arrest at any time. I asked my friends-who used to meet me on our weekly Friday prayer –not to meet me in my home to avoid any trouble .I emailed some of my friends at the US embassy and in the US asking for help.
After I lost my job at Ibn Khaldoun Center, I accepted that condition hoping the security service may left my family and me in our bad situation, but they did not. The security service was not content to let me live, however, and kept terrifying us. They set up a center in the nearest town to my family village to watch my relatives, and were keen to let me know that I was being watched, and that my telephone was tapped. Finally they arrested some of my friends who live in my neighborhood [Al matareyah] and who used to attend my weekly prayer at home. They questioned me twice about them and their ideas in October 2001. One of my friends who had been arrested with me in 1987 called me and informed me that they also arrested and questioned some of our old friends. He told me that he expected them to arrest both of us along with some of my relatives. He asked me to forsake my friends and save myself, because they –as usual –would force my friends to recognize me as their leader. Taking this advice, I escaped to the US on October, 15, 2001, four days before the Conference of New York, which I was invited to attend.
In its International Religious Freedom Report [2002] about Egypt, the U. S Department of State has mentioned the case of my friends ,it says:[On Marc 5,2002,a state security Emergency Court convicted eight persons from the city of mataria near Cairo of violating Article 98(F)of the penal Code They were arrested in October 2001 for holding unorthodox Islamic beliefs and practices .Sentences ranged from 3 years in prison for the two principal defendants to 1-year suspended sentences for 6 persons ,who were dealt with more leniently because they were not accused of propagating the unorthodox beliefs.]
There are some absent facts here :1- those people used to attend my weekly prayers, but when I asked them not to come anymore to my home ,they used to meet in another home in the same neighborhood ,In spite of being at their own house , they were arrested .
2- They arrested more than 20 persons, including the house wives and children. It is usual to arrest many people to interrogate them, this means torture often. After that they release some of them and keep the others to be prosecuted.
3- They are officially accused of [insulting a heavenly religion].the U S report referred to this ,under title [Abuse of Religious Freedom] ,but the Egyptian newspapers have defined them as the [Quranic group]My Quranic Group upholds Islam as the religion of peace ,tolerance, justice , freedom of speech and human rights. Being against the fanatics and the religious culture of terrorism, it means you will be thrown in jail; even you are practicing your own belief inside your own home. That what was prepared for me in Egypt in 2001, and it is still waiting for me.
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Attachment (2)
My struggle to reform the Egyptian Education
During Nasser’s rule in Egypt, I was a student at Al Azhar preparatory and secondary school. Nasser reformed education at Al Azhar by adding modern subjects and modern colleges to bring Al Azhar scholars more up-to-date. So at that time we studied modern subjects along with religious subject that went back to the dark Middle Ages, and were written by scholars who died more than seven centuries ago. The gap was so wide between the modern and old subjects that we felt ashamed of that backwardness of the old religious subjects. During Nasser’s rule, we were overwhelmed by his dreams of progress, and we tried to challenge ourselves and bring ourselves up to date. This progress was the general target of Egyptians, and Egyptian education reflected this goal both in general education and in the education received at Al Azhar. Nasser should have completed his reform of education at Al Azhar by modernizing the religious curriculum, but he became distracted by the Egyptian-Israeli conflict after the Six Days war in 1967.
Sadat followed Nasser with another policy. He allied himself with the Muslim Brothers and gave them the opportunity to control the media, education, and religious and cultural affairs. As a result of this policy, Egyptian culture became more fanatical, and the traditional Al Azhar subjects spread to influence the Egyptian mind through the media, general education, and mosques.
In 1973 I graduated from Al Azhar University and worked as an assistant professor at the university. I began the difficult process of trying to reform the religious life of Muslims from within Islam. I was fired and put in prison in 1987. I have been insulted severely in the Egyptian media and few defended me while I was helpless in prison. Farag Fouda, the leader of the secular trend in Egypt, was one of those who defended me. After I had been released from prison, we became friends and we tried to form a new party called the Future Party, which called for reform of different aspects of Egyptian life, especially in the fields of media, education, and culture. We had both been insulted in the media, and the leaders of Al Azhar and the Muslim Brothers issued a fatwa calling to assassinate us.
Fouda was killed in June 1992, accused of being a Muslim who committed apostasy and therefore should be killed by any means. The secular trend in Egypt has struggled against the penalty of apostasy because it is a deadly weapon in the hands of the religious movement who use it to frighten their political opponents. As a Muslim scholar, I proved that the penalty of apostasy has nothing to do with Islam, and that is a fabricated tradition created and applied two centuries after the Prophet Muhammad’s death. That gave us a great victory at the time, in spite of the opposition I faced. We changed Fouda’s office to be the Egyptian Association for Enlightenment. I became its general secretary. In 1994 I gave a lecture about the important need to reform education at Al Azhar entitled “Al Azhar and the Enlightenment.� Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim attended that meeting, and we became friends. I worked with him in his Center as a counselor in the religious fanatic tradition. In January 1996, I began my weekly forums, held every Tuesday night until Dr. Ibrahim was arrested in June, 2000.
In the weekly forum, we discussed the need for reform in Egyptian society, especially in education. The reactions of the Rewak of the Ibn Khaldoun Center were intense, and so was the suffering we experienced. But the greatest suffering came when the Ibn Khaldoun Center handled the project of reforming the Egyptian education system, in order to be more sensitive to the Copts, the Christians in Egypt. The Copts in Egypt have suffered since the time of Sadat, when the religious political movement used his authority inside the regime and among the public to oppress the Copts, especially in education. For example, mainstream Egyptian history ignores Coptic history, and when taking Arabic language courses, Copts are forced to study verses of the Quran and Muslim traditions. In religious courses, Christian students are usually separated and taught by a Christian teacher. Meanwhile, Muslim pupils are taught that their Christian classmates are disbelievers and will go to hell. In this way, the Muslim students begin to be ardent fanatics. The same education policies are in effect in Algeria, which leads to killing each other as a jihad. General education in Egypt is supposedly secular, but it is not. What is happening in religious education establishments (such as Al Azhar) is even more extreme. Therefore, I felt it was important to begin a campaign of reform of the Egyptian education system.
In June 23, 1997 I wrote an article in the magazine Rosalyousif, in which I argued that in order to get rid of fanaticism, we should reform the religious courses in the general education system. I called for a new curriculum based on moral values and on the culture of human rights, rather than on the culture of fanaticism which dates to the traditions of the middle Ages.
In the following year, the Ibn Khaldoun Center took the initiative of reforming Egyptian education, specifically in religious courses and in some aspects of history and Arabic language courses. I was assigned to prepare an alternative religious course to suggest to the Minister of Education, who approved of the project. The members of the committee prepared their suggestions in one year. I also prepared another book, a guide for the teachers of the religious courses, in addition to the main book proposing suggestions for the religious courses. The second step was to review all of the suggestions of the experts, the well-known writers, and religious and cultural leaders, including individuals from Al Azhar and the church. The fanatics did not react immediately, but waited for the approval of the Minister of Education, who they disliked very much. When the Minister commended the project in an open assembly, the campaign against us began. It lasted for four months, and was full of awful and false accusations.
The following are some examples:
On April 30, 1999 the official newspaper Akedaty (My Belief) had written on its front page: “We expose Saad Eddin Ibrahim and the Ibn Khaldoun Center. The Quran never says ‘the Israelis are Egyptians.’� This comment was in regard to my suggestion for the religious course that Jews who are born in Egypt are Egyptians like Muslim Egyptians, and they have the same rights, according to the Quran.
On May 4, 1999 the Alsha’ab (People) newspaper, controlled by the Muslim Brothers, wrote: developing the courses in the Ibn Khadoun Center and the title with the religion (Islam). The suggested courses are a part of the Zionist project in assaulting the Muslim faith. Accepting the courses by the Ministry of Education should be questioned personally because of that. The writer of alternative religious courses was fired from Al Azhar because he makes doubts about the Prophet.
On May 4, 1999 Akedaty wrote: With the approval of the Ministry of Education, the creators of the proposed new religious courses (in Egyptian education) are terrorists. The Center wants the West to attack us. The suggestions for the religious courses made by the Ibn Khaldoun are a result of an agreement between the leaders of the Jews and the Vatican.
On May 11 1999, Akedaty wrote: Our campaign succeeds; the goal of the Ibn Khaldoun Center will be discussed in the Parliament. Before the dean of Al Azhar: A report about the nonsense of the Ibn Khaldoun Center is not equal to KG boys. It has confusing information that misleads young men.
On May 16 1999 the official newspaper Alsayasy Al Masry (The Egyptian Politician) wrote: Conspiracy to teach the Zionist ideology inside the religious courses in our school. Stop this crime before it is completed. Zionist courses to be taught in the religious courses in our schools. The writer was fired from Al Azhar and he wants to make an encounter between the two elements of the nation – which means Christian and Muslim Egyptians.
On May 17 1999, Alesboua (The Week) independent newspaper wrote: The front of Al Azhar’s leaders will resume fighting the denier of Sunna and the Ibn Khaldoun Center. They branded me a denier of Sunna, meaning I should be killed.
On the same day, Al Ahrar (of the liberal party) wrote about three interrogations in the Parliament about a book that insults Islam, referring to my book.
On May 18 1999, Al Midan (Square), an independent newspaper wrote: Ibn Khaldoun Center project to teach pupils how to insult the Prophet. A. Subhy Mansour says the Prophet had no right to judge people according to their faith.
On May 18 1999 Akedaty (My Belief) wrote: After denying the Sunna and insulting the Prophet, they aim to foster doubts in the Quran. They claim that the friends of the Prophet are not good examples and that the Abbasid Caliphate invented the penalty of Apostasy.
On May 20 1999 Al Ahrar (the liberals) wrote: the fund is Germany, the attitude is Jewish, and the Minister of Education blessed it. The nonsense of the Ibn Khaldoun courses is discussed in the parliament. The Center suggests confusing, misleading religious courses that say that Jews born in Egypt are Egyptians so they have the right to get Egyptian citizenship. The prophet had mistaken in the battle OHOD and insulted his soldiers, and he has no right to intercede in the Day of Judgment (or to help any Muslim). A full report in the hands of the dean of Al Azhar contains all the mistakes of that course.
As a result of this campaign, my life was in real danger. I found some shelter in the influence of Dr. Ibrahim but after he was arrested in June 2000, I became an easy target for my enemies inside the regime and inside the religious movement. I had to escape to the US to seek political asylum.
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Attachment 3:
THE QURANIC TREND .
In any language, Islam means submission to the one God, and to be peaceful.
It is the Divine Message of all the prophets, and Mohammed was the seal of them, his seal divine message [the Quran] was expressed in Arabic, confirming what was revealed before him to the previous prophets.
After his death, Quraish, the Arabic tribe of the prophet Mohammed has used the name of Islam to invade and establish the Arabic Muslim Empire that for centuries had ruled many nations in Asia, Africa and Europe. That political use of Islam was against the religion of Islam.
Muslims - in that time and under that empire - created another religious traditions which have been their practical religions under the name of Sunna, Sheeah, and Shuphism. Every sect has its own belief, its own tradition, its own jurisprudence, its own scriptures, and its own scholars or [imams]. Every sect understands Quran in the way that it supports his own ego, and according to his own tradition. So every sect has his own scriptures of [Tafseer Al Quran] or the interpretation of the Quran, which is their interpretative vision of the Quran and Islam. Every sect has also his Sacred [fabricated] Revelation which they believe that it came from God .The Sunna sect attributed their revelation to the prophet Mohammed two centuries and more after his death ,The Sheeah attributed theirs to the prophet Mohammed and his Family [Aal al Bayt ] some centuries after their death .However, the Suphy people believe that their revelation comes at any time directly from God through their Saints.
All their beliefs and ritual services were in accordance in both Muslim and Christian worlds with the religious and political life of the Middle ages. In Europe, they had struggled for centuries to bring the secular state and human rights alongside democracy and justice. This is the culture of our Modern Age, but, it is not the culture of the so-called Islamic Arabic World, where the dictators rule in the name of Islam or the title of Nationality. However,it is not the only problem ,the existing problem is the fanatic religious trend ,that works hard to take over the Muslim world to restore the middle ages culture which includes wars against the west or [Jehad] as it was before. This fanatic trend belongs mainly to the Sunny and the Sheeah sects, but also receives supporters from the Suphy sect and even from the secular left wings after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They have all set aside their disputes to ally against the west, the Christians, and the Jews. Though the opposition of the dictators should be the secular trend that upholds the culture of democracy, civil society, justice and human rights, the religious fanatic trend controls not only the oppositions but also many fields inside the regimes and the masses.
After September 11, the problem is no longer a domestic one, and arguably world war three has begun. In such a war, the military forces are not the effective weapons. The enemy could be your neighbors or your friends, or the soldiers themselves who are supposed to defend you, but in a certain moment one may embrace Islam- that is the version of Islam invented by Muslims-then he becomes an ardent enemy, who believes that killing you and the innocent people is his way to please God, and to live in His Paradise.
In such a war, the criminal is just a victim, because the real criminal is the false religious teachings that hijack Islam many centuries ago. In such a war, the struggle should include the field of religious thought, which it means to fight from inside Islam.
This is the expertise of the Quranic trend through 25years of struggle and persecution in Egypt.
This attachment gives a brief glance about the Quranists , the trend that has been created through my struggle and persecution.
From 1977-1980, I endured three years of persecution inside Al Azhar University, I was persecuted because my PH, D was considered against the sacred Suphy saints , their tradition, and it showed their corruption and vices from inside their own scriptures. In that time I was accused to be the enemy of the righteous allies of God. The Sunny sect welcomed me because they are also against the Suphy sect and I worked with them for five years, inside and outside Al Azhar University.
After studying the Sunny tradition, I discovered its culture of terrorism is more dangerous than the peaceful superstitious Suphy tradition. I have proved the contradiction between Islam and the Sunny beliefs, and as a result I have suffered from severe persecution; I was fired from the university, thrown in prison, doomed, accused to be the enemy of the prophet Mohammed and Islam. More over, I have been given an official bad brand of the rejecter or the denier of Sunna.
During [1977-1988] my struggle resulted in many conflicts. My enemies had the power, but they had no legitimate or justifiable argument. In order to justify their violence against me, they distorted my writings to refute them, which unintentionally spread some of my ideas. It helped me to find followers, supporters, and friends, inside and outside Egypt, who helped me to publish serial of articles under the title of [The Quran is the solution] which led to the birth of the new title [The Quranists].
Through 1990 s, I have involved in Arabic and Egyptian movements for democracy, civil society, and human rights NGO’s. The Quranic trend has been established in and out these NGO’s, but the weekly forum of Ibn Khaldoun Center has been their stand from 1996-2000.
The documents reflect the history of the Quranic trend in spite of the blackout sponsored by the regime and the fanatic terrorist religious trend in Egypt and the Saudi kingdom.
Before the birth of the ‘Quranists’in 1987, the brand name ‘the denier of the Sunna; rejecter of the Sunna ;’ was the favorite title they gave me .The Egyptian media reflected that emage on their front pages when we were in prison, For examples :-
Al Ahram, the famous official newspaper, wrote on its front page, on November 30,1987.� 16 of the members of the group who denies the Sunna are detained.� On page 6 it wrote “A Fired professor from Al Azhar leads a group rejecting the Mohammadian Sunna and insulting the friends of the prophet .� .Actually we were 28 peaceful persons ,most of them are professors, lawyers, and high educated people .
On December 5, 1987, Akhbar Alyoum[news today ] wrote “Who are the enemy of the Sunna ? The story of the fanatic organization which is interrogated by the state high prosecutor,� In this instance, they added another brand “the fanatic organization�.
On December 10,1987, the official religious newspaper Al Lewaaa Al islamy [The Islamic Flag ] wrote: “Surprise in the case of the rejecters of Sunna.�
Out of Egypt, the media responded in Arabic and in English. For example,
On November 29, 1987 Tehran Times wrote “28 Moslem activists held in Egypt. Cairo (AP)-Police has detained 28 alleged members of an “extremist’s Moslem organization�, the weekly Akhbar Al youm said in yesterday early editions. The state-owned newspaper said the group advocated non-compliance with the Sunna, a code which consists of the deeds of the prophet Mohammed(S).A good Moslem is required to obey Mohammed s(S) words and emulate his deeds. The Sunna is considered part of Moslem Law and is second in importance only to the Quran, the Holy Book which Moslems revere as the word of God reveled to Mohammed(S). Moslem’ fundamentalists ’in Egypt have been clamoring for strict implementation of Moslem law as laid down in both the Quran and Sunna. The newspaper said state security prosectors are interrogating the detainees ...�
From1989 the title of the Quranists has appeared because of my involvement in many NGO’s of human rights, civil society and enlightenment, specially when Ibn Khaldoun center has given me a continuous weekly forum ,where all the intellectuals from different back grounds could argue in a civilized way ,and the silent trends like the Egyptian Sheeahs and the Quranists had a stand to practice their freedom of speech ,beside The Copts { The Christian Egyptians) ,and the Egyptians advocated peace with Israel, It was a unique open forum where all different people could listen to each others, and discuss their views in a decent way ,without any accusations.
But this forum has been doomed in the Egyptian media, because the fanatics could not tolerate the freedom of speech in one building in Cairo, although they control the media, the education, the mosques, and all the means that enable them to brain wash the masses.As a result,theQuranic trend in this forum has been insulted more in the Egyptian media when they practiced their freedom of speech .For examples:
On February,17,1979 Al Osboua [The week] on its front page wrote “in Ibn Khalddon center which becomes the center for the children of Zionism: Ahmed Subhy Mansour says: the prophet Mohammed did not go up to the heavens in the night of “israa�
On February,25,1997,Akedaty [my belief] wrote “A suspected center is running a forum lead by a fired professor to serve the needs of the international Zionism. They are a devilish plant which we should sweep� .In such kind of writing you find no arguments ,but just accusations in a way that urges the zealots to kill us. Of course they ask their [imams] or scholars to discuss our perspectives, but they have nothing except dooming us.
On May,26,1997, Al Osboua [The week] wrote a call saying “Oh, Imams of Islam [scholars of Al Azar] refute [the sayings of] Ahmed Subhy Mansour “.
On August, 21,1997 Aafak Arabeyya ;[Arabic horizons] wrote “In a forum in Ibn Khaldoun center: Ahmed Subhy Mansour rejects the Sunna of the prophet ‘Mohammed .�
Due to one of the forum’s sessions, which discussed the case of the marriages that usually happens between the Egyptian males and the Israelis women, the center and its weekly forum was insulted severely. For example :
On March,16,1999, Akidaty [my belief] wrote in its front page “In Ibn Khaldoun center ,in a suspected session ,they defend –hardly- the marriage between the Egyptian men and the Israelis women “. On page 9 they wrote “Change its name to be center of Son of Zion instead of Ibn Khaldoun “. [ Zion and Zionist] are a very bad names in Egypt .
On March,22,1999 ,Al Osboua [the week ] wrote “Find a way to deal with those people who are destroying ‘us’. In Ibn Khaldoun center : an invitation to marry the Israeli woman to decrease the violent between us “
On March,23,1999 ,Al Shaab [The people ]wrote “Believe it or not : Ibn Khaldoun center ask ‘us’ to respect the marriage between the Egyptians and the Zionists.�
On April,6,1999,Akidaty [my belief ] wrote “Ibn Khaldoun and its defending the Zionists.�
On April,13,1999, Al Shaab, [The People] wrote “Ibn Khaldoun and its suspected forum.�
The forum of Ibn Khaldoun has discussed some of the Sheeahs issues which are not acceptable by the Sunna trend, they were controversial sessions, Akidaty wrote on May,18,1999, [A quarrel in the center of Ibn ‘Zion’ about the enjoyment marriage] “of the Sheeah�.
The effect of the Quranists in Ibn Khaldoun center made Al jeel [The Generation ] write a dangerous article on 7-11-1999, saying “The Quranists are coming!!. A new sect is appearing in Islam .!!. It will make a big argument in the coming days.� This actually was an echo of the campaign against Dr Saad el Deen and me, because of the project of reforming the Egyptian education which was born in the weekly forum.
This project was a real chance to declare the belief of the Quranists as suggestions in the Islamic courses to be instead of the fanatic Sunny courses. The Quranic suggestions have pointed out that Islam is the religion of tolerance ,peace ,democracy, justice and human rights ,but Muslims in their tradition are against all of these high values .
Al Azhar has begun to evoke the regime against the Quranists in frank way in mosques and in newspapers in his calling the authorities to arrest them. For example , in his articles, the dean of Al Azhar University ,Ahmed Omer Hashim, has threatened us in the official newspapers. On June,4,1999, he wrote in Al Akhbar calling the regime to act against us, under the title: [to the enemies of the Sunna of the prophet].On Al Ahram, September ,1999, he said [The Quranists has been predicted by the prophet ‘Mohammed ‘who has warned ’us’ from them.],
In the same time, the fanatic trend has moved through their mosques and the media attacking the Quranists to make the masses mob against us .It was a big story; However, I will give one example :Al Ahrar newspaper [The liberals] has led a severe continuous campaign ,consists of more than 23 long daily articles from August,12,1999.
On August,12,1999 they wrote “the rejecters of Sunna are warring Aaysha [the wife of the prophet Mohammed ]and Aby Horayrah [the friend of the prophet and the biggest narrator of his sayings ]and Al Bokhary ,[the biggest saint of the sunny trend ] in the same time,they –the Quranists – accept the sayings of Ahmed Subhy Mansour “
On August,13,1999, they wrote under my picture [The Quranists are saying: The prophets wives are slave women, widows and homeless].
On August,17,1999 ,they accused me to be an agent to the U S Congress, and I have assigned myself to attack the Sunna of the prophet Mohammed , and I have the revelation from GOD .
On August,18,1999, they attribute that I would doom anyone who testifies that Mohammed is the messenger of GOD .
On August,19,1999, they accused me to be an agent of the Masons to destroy the Islamic belief.
Because of these false accusations ,my life was in a real danger ,so I sent one article in my defense. It was published on September,4,1999, under the titles:�There is a conspiracy to assassinate me�, ‘by this campaign’. But the campaign against the Quranists has continued to pave the way to the regime to arrest us and to accuse us to be the enemy of Islam.
In the Egyptian code there is no penalty to who reject the Sunna ,but it has a penalty to who insult the heavenly religion .The fanatics usually insult the Christian and the Jewish religions in the religious educational courses and in the mosques, but when I tried to reform this culture they have prepared a case to punish us according to the penalty code ’insulting the religion’. It had begun before the case of Dr;Saad el Deen Ebraheem ,when they arrested members of my family and relatives in my village, then it became worse after they arrested Dr ,Ibraheem. I isolated myself in my home in Cairo, expecting that they would come to arrest me any time .I have sent many complains to the authorities asserting that arresting me means my assassination. Since most of the prisoners who control the prisons are fanatics, once I am in the prison the fanatics will kill me as if is their own [Jihad ] .One copy of this complain was sent to the U S embassy in Cairo. Finally they have arrested some of my friends who used to meet one another in Ameen Yosif’ home.
The Egyptian newspapers have mentioned the arrest of my friends along with the false accusations. For example :
On October 3 ,2001, Al Ahram wrote [13 detained in the case of releasing fanatic ideas.] This explained that they were accused to insult the religion of Islam, from inside there house in Al matareyah ,Cairo .’Matareyah is my county.’
On October 15,I was escaping to the U S .
On November,15,2001, The Washington Post talked about “Egypt Jails Gays for ‘Debauchery.� The newspaper further said :�The case was one of several in recent months to be criticized by local civil liberties as evidences of government repression. A prominent academic was sentenced to seven years in prison for accepting foreign contribution in violation of government regulations designed to combat the financing of terrorists, and an author was investigated on charges of apostasy.�In this article the newspaper referred to Dr, Ibraheem, and to my Quranic friend Ameen Yosif .
On December,26,2001 ,Al Akhbar mentioned the same case of the Quranists as “The fanatic organization of Al Matareyah,who are insulting Islam� .
On January,16,2002 ,Al Ahram said : “ In the case of the Quranic group : they embrace an anti- Islam thought.�
The same news on Al Wafd newspaper on January,28,2002,and on Al Ahram on January,30,2002.
On June,-6, 2002, Al Ahram and Al Gomhoreyah mentioned that Ameen Yousif has disowned his Quranic belief.
But on March,5,2002, the state security Emergency Court convicted the eight Quranic persons. Sentences ranged from 3 years to 1 year.
During the last decade of the 20the century I used to receive calls and letters from the Quranists around the world, and to meet the press and media in and out of Egypt to give the Quranic perspectives in any issue they concerned. On October 11, 2001, Four days before my escaping to the U S, the newspaper Die Zeit ,Hamburg (Germany) wrote one complete page about Al Azhar,saying { NEW BOOKS,500 YEARS OLD. At Al Azhar University they teach medieval Islam. Is this institution, too, a school for militant Muslims?}.The talked about Al Azhar, its history ,its role, its biggest leader: �Shaihk Sayed Tantawy, and about me .
The German newspaper said “Ahmed Subhy Mansour has had such doubts for more than twenty years. He knows Al Azhar since childhood. First he attended one of its elementary schools in his hometown of Zagazig, later he studied for 16 years at Al Azhar University in Cairo.’ I was taught that Islam is the best of all religions and is the superior to all others. But,’ he adds ‘Al Azhar remained stagnant. Its teachings are irreconcilable with the modern understanding of human rights, democracy and tolerance. The youngest of its books are 500 years old’. Mansour is a kind of black sheep (enfant terrible ) for Al Azhar. Because of his provocative writings he was expelled from the university in 1987. His opinion about the peaceful character of Islam concurs with that of Shaikh Tantawi, but Mansour doubts the sincerity of the Azhar scholars, ‘They speak with two tongues; To the outside world they present a tolerant Islam; domestically, however, they say something different.’ The basic problem –according to Mansour- is not in the Quran.’ I can prove, at the instance of the Quran, that Islam is a peaceful religion reconcilable with modern human rights. The problem is the Sunni tradition that emerged in the centuries after the death of the prophet Mohammed. With the help of this tradition it is possible to justify a militant Islam.’
Al Azhar is not prepared to discard that tradition which includes, according to Mansour ,many Hadith(sayings of the prophet) that do not really originate with Mohammed but were attributed to him by posterity. A striking example to illustrate this phenomenon is the punishment of apostasy. According to the traditional interpretation every Muslim becomes liable to capital punishment if he abandons Islam. In 1993 Mansour published a study in which he demonstrated that this punishment has no basis in the Quran. The Quran states unambiguously “let there be no compulsion in religion.� Because of this book Al Azhar scholars issued a verdict against Mansour in which they accused him of apostasy, thus making him an outcast. Because of such methods some intellectuals accused Al Azhar of “intellectual terrorism.�.
This is what was written in the German newspaper on October,11,2001.
The persecution could not veil the truth, it makes it grows and flourishes around the world.
Attachment 4:
the Saudian Opposition in the 20th Century
The Religious Sunni Opposition in the Saudi Kingdom in the 20th Century was written in Arabic in June 2001. The book is 471 pages which does not include the attached documents.
The Religious Sunni Opposition at a Glance
Both the Saudi regime and its religious Sunni opposition maintain the same beliefs and ideologies. Together, they represent the fanatic Muslim Sunni , who are against other Muslim sects such as Sophy and/or Sheeah.
.Inside the fanatic Sunni sect they –together- uphold the most fanatic jurisprudence known a Hanabela. Hanabela is more fanatic than the other Sunni schools such as Ahnaf, Malekia, Shafeiah, and Zaheria.
Inside the radical school of Hanabela they –together- maintain the hardest line of Hanabela that belongs to the famous scholar, Ibn Taymeia, who died in 1327. Ibn Taymeia revolted against the Mameluke regime in Egypt and Syria during the 14th century.
Inside the teachings of Ibn Taymeia ,they- together - follow the hardest line that was written and applied by Ibn Abdel Wahab, who cooperated with the Saudi family in establishing the first Saudi state in the 18th century. Wahabia is the official belief of the current Saudi state and the Saudi opposition. In representing Wahabi they oppose other Muslim sects and non-Muslim nations, especially Europe and America. They believe that the non-Wahabi are infidels who should be killed or fought as a Jehad. ,sooner or later.
Within the Wahabi belief, there is only one aspect of the ideological conflict between the regime and its religious Wahabi opposition. What is that ideology? This book answers that question through an analytic study of the fundamental and historical roots of the Saudi Wahabi opposition in the 20th century, from King Abdel-Aziz until his son King Fahd. This book also analyzes the culture of terrorism, which produced Osama bin Laden and his Al Kaeda network. Moreover, this book presents how one can face this religious culture from inside Islam.
The Religious Sunni Opposition in the Saudi Kingdom in the 20th Century consists of an introductory chapter and three sections. The preliminary chapter explains the historic and dogmatic roots of the Wahabi doctrine. The following three sections contain ten chapters.
The first section consists of five chapters that explain how Abdel Aziz established the Saudi state through utilizing his radical tough warriors, the Mojahedeen. The Mojahedeen are known as Ikhwan which means Muslim brothers. They were young Bedouins or nomads, but Abdel Aziz taught them how to uphold and to absorb the Wahabi doctrine. By engaging in Jehad or self sacrifice, Abdel Aziz had established the third Saudi state from 1902 to 1926. Abdel Aziz wanted to modernize his state by dealing with Egypt and with countries in the West. The Ikhwan revolted against him because he became an ally of the infidels. Abdel Aziz defeated them but he kept their ideology alive since it correlated with his own beliefs.
The second section deals with the Saudi Wahabi opposition during the time of King Saud –son of Abdel Aziz-. Then, the second chapter addresses the Saudi Wahabi opposition during the time of King Faisal and his brother King Knaled.
Chapter one analyzes the opposition to Naser Alssaed who was the labor leader of the Aramco Company workers. He successfully conducted many strikes and established a new movement in the kingdom which angered King Saud. Naser Alssaed was inspired and influenced by Abdel Nasser and the Egyptian revolution in the 1950’ Yet his own moderate religious dogma, made him different from both King Saud’s beliefs and Abdel Nasser’s beliefs. Actually, Naser Alssaed is the only one in Saudi’s opposition groups whose complete political program is to peacefully reform the state from within. Despite being a peaceful moderate, in 1977, the Saudi Service assassinated Naser Alssaed in Lebanon. During his life, after his death, and despite the blackout, Naser Alssaed was the leader who inspired and encouraged many opposition groups from within the Saudi family, Saudi Army, Saudi intellects, and the masses as well.
The second chapter of the second section analyzes the big movement of Johiman Alotaybi and his group. They occupied the sacred holy Mosque in Mecca on November 22, 1977, which according to the Muslim calendar was the first day beginning the 15th century. Johiman’s grand father was one of the [Ikhwan ] of Abdel Aziz , who revolted with them and was killed in the famous battle of Al Seblah on March 30, 1929. Johiman was a scholar who had his own secret organization. However, his effective weapon was his secret messages, which were compiled in an unpublished book entitled The Messages of Johiman Alotaybi. The Saudi authority still pursues the book. In Johiman’s messages he called for a fight with the Saudi regime, which represented an ally to the infidels and an enemy of Islam.
The last section analyzes the current opposition, which has emerged after the Gulf War and has produced Osama bin Laden and his Al Kaeda network.
The first chapter of this section gives a historic profile of this opposition group and its struggle against the Saudi state during 1990 to 2000.
The second chapter analyzes the ideological conflict between the independent religious committee, which leads the opposition and the Saudi state. In this dogmatic conflict, the official scholars of the Saudi state were completely defeated because the religious oppositions have their own arguments from inside the teachings of the sacred old [Imams] or scholars, including Ibn Taymeya and Ibn Abdel Wahab, who are idolized by all the Saudis.
The third chapter analyzes the main religious discourse of the current opposition,[Al amr bel maaroof Wa Al nahy an Al monkar] which means advocate what is good and forbid what is evil. The chapter further dissects how the current opposition use the Wahabi dogma to criticize the Saudi family, which mandates destroying their kingdom as the enemy of Islam.
The final conclusion of this study analyzes the future of the Saudi state--state that has been established three times and destroyed twice in the last four centuries. The future is influenced by its critical situation between the two long established states, Egypt and Iran. The future of the Saudi state will also be influenced by the regime’s need to reform and to moderate its religious dogma, along with a political, social, and economic reform. These reforms will be necessary for the state to survive longer than the former two Saudi states in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The attachments to this study include many pages from the confiscated and secret materials which are written by Saudi opponents. Since the documents are prohibited inside the Saudi kingdom, they have been compiled and published outside the kingdom. Consequently, some of the documents were published through the internet. Possessing some of these materials could lead to punishment by prison or death without a real trial. The documents include pages from Naser Alssaed’s book History of the Saudi Family; pages from the secret messages of Jehiman Alotaybi; messages from the internet of Al Masary, the leader of the religious committee, who is exiled to London and who has inspired Osama bin Laden; and documents of the human rights reports, which indicate the violations that exist within the kingdom.
Topic started by hurricane on May 19, 2008 12:28:46 pm
Zeemax,
No this is not a religious post, nor one that discusses your johnny walker induced balli walk.
No. This is a simple post about simple questions I have for you, having read stuff that you shared with us on chowk.
1. I have often wondered why hindu women living in the gulf, which is really truly chock full of cheap gold, would want to chodify in return for a gold trinket? I mean, I just don't understand that. EVERYONE over there has tons of gold. Even the jamadars. And you mentioned that you chodify the hindu ladies for a gold trinket or two... So....anyway, I'm sure you will sort out this illogical assertion that you made.
2. You mentioned that the swiss GF of yours, you know the one that said you are the best, I wonder about the statement you made that you chodifyied "her dry all night". Why was she dry? I mean, shouldn't she have been aroused and therefore "not dry"?
3. A related question. Did you use gold trinkets on the swiss as well?
4. And a followup on that followup: Are you referring to prosti's as GF's? If so, that could explain the glowing compliment that the swiss paid to one of the best tippers. Her best john. And that would explain the dryness...
That's all for now...
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Posts 1-16 of 16Post by jang on May 19, 2008 2:05:39 pm
hurricane, again pls dont harrass jee for tryiong to be a good momeen
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Post by Selim_Chauhan on May 19, 2008 1:23:18 pm
Harry Pi,
I am not going to squeeze the lemon one bit. You know what she wants and why should I give it to her for free?
Let the philospher take care of the professor
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Post by hurricane on May 19, 2008 1:17:32 pm
Salim pi,
I do beleive that neembu her cleverness (for she's the cleverest of them all), has given you the green light to gaali galouch her shiri pitta ji and shirimati mata ji
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Post by neembu on May 19, 2008 1:14:55 pm
chuhan haramzadey hates the fact th
philosopher
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