About The Previous Article Titled (A Message Addressed to the Egyptian President...)
Published in February 20, 2019
Translated by: Ahmed Fathy
Introduction:
Our previous article titled (A Message Addressed to the Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi Concerning the Recent Suicide Bombing), found in English on this link(http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=19368), has received several comments in Arabic from some of our dear fellow Quranists. The comment of the Egyptian-Norwegian Quranist Mr. M. Abdel-Meguid is titled (Dr. Mansour's voice is of one crying in the wilderness); the comment of the Egyptian-Canadian Quranist Dr. Othman M. Ali is titled (there is no hope in Al-Sisi); the comment of the Libyan Quranist Mr. Saeed Al-Magbary is titled (between yielding to tyrants and the tyranny of clergymen); the comment of the Palestinian Quranist Mr. Osama Qafeesha is titled (I shall never understand); the comment of the Egyptian Quranist Dr. Mustafa Ismail Hammad is titled (worshiping evil); the comment of the German Mr. Ben Levant is titled (more details to be added). We thank all of them for their useful comments which have enriched the discussion of our article. We write the article you are reading now here in order to explain further our point of view.
First: between ignorance and awareness:
1- During the Ottoman Era, M. Ali Pacha, the governor and later on king of Egypt, established a council for consultations filled with chancellors; one of his successors to the throne, Khedive Ismail Pacha, turned it into the Egyptian Parliament, and he made it a parliament in the European style; the first session of the Egyptian Parliament was held in 25th of Nov. 1866. It was the very first parliament in the Arab world. Khedive Ismail Pacha wanted those members of the Egyptian Parliament who agree with his views to sit on the right side and those who oppose his views to sit on the left side to imitate European parliaments; yet, all members sat on the right side; no one dared to think they can oppose any views of the Khedive of Egypt; of course, Khedive Ismail Pacha never understood at the time that democracy entails raised awareness and a higher level of real, sound education for all people to allow them to participate actively in the political life; people at the time knew that typically any rulers were absolutist tyrants.
2- In fact, Khedive Ismail Pacha made a great reform in education but this remained confined to the upper classes and the elite members of the Egyptian society; though the government sent brilliant Egyptian students to Europe (mostly France) to learn at universities there (and so did feudalists and capitalists to their sons at the time), the vast majority of the Egyptian people remained in ignorance for a long time as they never received any education. When Dr. M. Hussein Heikal obtained his PhD degree in law from the Sorbonne University in France in 1912, he returned to Egypt and became a leading literary figure, politician, and lawyer and later on a minister. In fact, he wrote the very first Egyptian novel which was later on made into an Egyptian movie in the 1930s. When Dr. Heikal became a candidate in the parliamentary elections, his rival who was bent on getting a seat in the Egyptian Parliament made his men spread the rumor among the ignoramuses that Dr. Heikal was an adherent of democracy and that democracy meant that all men share all wives sexually within orgies! This rival urged the ignorant people in the constituency to ask Dr. Heikal in public if he was a believer in democracy or not, when Dr. Heikal answered in the affirmative, the masses were horrified and thought he was a promiscuous man who posed a threat to their wives! Naturally, Dr. Heikal lost in these elections and his rival won the seat in the Egyptian Parliament; he never understood that the people in the constituency were ignorant and never knew anything about democracy and active political participation based on raised awareness resulting from real, sound education.
Secondly: between raising awareness and inculcating and teaching ignorance:
1- Ignorance is a terrible ailment, but there is another more terrible ailment; namely, to teach ignorance to people. The most terrible ailment is to teach and inculcate ignorance to others while labeling it as 'Islam'. We mean by this to educate and teach people ignorance and linking it to the name of Islam; this typically occurs when an earthly/terrestrial religion (posing as if it were Islam) dominates over the State and make it hasten with long strides towards its collapse and into the worst levels of backwardness.
2- During the reign of Khedive Ismail Pacha, Al-Azhar was a mere mosque with few students who learn fiqh; at the time when brilliant Egyptian students were sent to European universities, sheikh M. Abdou became the head of Al-Azhar and he tried (but failed) to reform Al-Azhar; other heads of Al-Azhar introduced limited reforms inside Al-Azhar and its few branches were established in several Egyptian cities. Later on, President Gamal Abdel-Nasser made a terrible mistake; for political reasons (mainly to spite Saudi Arabia), he established many Azharite primary and secondary schools and introduced faculties of medicine, engineering, pharmacy, etc. in Al-Azhar University. During the eras of presidents Sadat and Mubarak, KSA-funded Azharite schools mushroomed like cancerous cells all over Egypt to spread Wahabism. The military rule people and Wahabi agents (e.g., the terrorist MB members and Salafists) began to vie for more power and authority in Egypt by hypocritically showing signs of religiosity in public, especially during the parliamentary elections. During the era of Mubarak, an obsequious Wahabi sheikh who served the Mubarak regime at the same time became a candidate within these elections; he won without rigging the elections by deceiving the ignorant, illiterate quasi-religious masses who adhered to Sunnite Wahabism; he raised the slogan that the constituents must choose (the people of God) to represent them in the Egyptian Parliament! This way, this Wahabi sheikh won his seat in Egyptian Parliament. This slogan is nothing but utter blasphemy; no people should call or deem themselves as (the people of God), as this contradicts the Quranic Chapter 112 and the Quranic verse 6:101. Yet, this Wahabi sheikh made use of the dominant Wahabi culture of religious ignorance spread by Al-Azhar and by the Egyptian media at the time in the 1990s.
3- The terrible calamity of teaching ignorance make people assume they are educated while they are not. Illiterate people admit their ignorance and may be apt and able to learn one day. In contrast, the ignorant ones who supposed themselves to be well-educated though they have been taught nothing but ignorance are very arrogant and haughty; they never admit their being ignorant. When such ignorant ones are taught religious ignorance of an earthly/terrestrial religion, they may consider themselves as envoys of the Lord God to guide and lead all people; they propagate myths and falsehoods as if they were Islam; those who dare to protest against this are deemed as 'apostates' and 'infidels' who reject the 'true' faith and deserve to be severely punished/persecuted or killed.
4- Sadly, the culture of religious ignorance dominates over Egypt now; the Wahabi religion of Satan threaten to cause bloodbaths and mass graves; most victims would be among those weak, oppressed ones on earth. To prevent such atrocities, raised awareness must replace religious ignorance by means of real, sound education.
5- Without this raised awareness no good citizens (e.g., a thinker and a journalist with a vision like Mr. M. Abdel-Meguid) would win within transparent, free parliamentary elections which could not be rigged; this is because there are no citizens with raised awareness based on real, sound education.
6- Of course, we belong to the weak, oppressed ones on earth; we defend and pity them and fear for them; yet, sometimes, we imagine that if one day we would walk in the busy streets of an Egyptian city and ordinary people would recognize us as the Sunna-denier who, as per Al-Azhar accusations leveled against our person, hates Prophet Muhammad and his 'holy' companions, those ordinary people whom we defend will readily kill our person while assuming that this is a good deeds which will earn them a place in Paradise; this is what they have learned from Azharite sheikhs and clergymen!
Thirdly: raising awareness is a forgotten Islamic obligation/duty:
1- Of course, (raising) awareness is not a Quranic term; yet, its meaning is repeated tens of times in the Quranic text in the verbs (to reflect), (to understand), (to heed), (to discern), (to know), (to comprehend), etc. Analyzing these verses containing these Quranic terms would entail sheets and sheets. Let us quote few Quranic verses to exemplify this: "We have revealed it an Arabic Quran, so that you may understand." (12:2); "We made it an Arabic Quran, so that you may understand." (43:3); "...God thus explains the Verses for you, so that you may understand." (24:61); "...Do you not understand?" (2:44); "...Do you not comprehend?" (28:60); "Do they not discern?" (36:68).
2- Thus, to raise awareness so that one would discern, reason, reflect, learn, and understand means that one activates one's mind; this begins with bringing up children within values of discussing and questioning everything while respecting the views of others which differ from our own and to respect the right to hold different opinions within freedom of speech. This is against the current Egyptian educational system which is based on memorization (e.g., pupils would memorize Quranic verses they never understood). Al-Azhar university students misunderstand the Quran as they are taught to revere and accept blindly the whims and erroneous views and ponderings of the clergymen who own and fashion the earthly/ terrestrial religions of the Muhammadans. The most serious Wahabi notion taught in Sunnite books leading to violence and terrorism is to fight and put to death the 'heretics' or 'infidels' who have different religious views or stances. Sadly, children who are taught Wahabism cling to such violet, extremist ideas because they have absorbed it in their minds during their young age; once they grow up, they turn themselves into time bombs ready to explode anytime when given the chance.
3- Thus, to raise awareness so that one would discern, reflect, learn, and understand means that one will never be deceived by charlatans, cons, and frauds to control citizens in the name of religion, homeland, or nationalism.
Fourthly: democracy will never flourish within inculcating and teaching ignorance:
1- Within ignorance posing as if it were Islam, democracy failed in Pakistan several times until a coup d'état occurred which resulted in a military regime; the same thing occurred in Sudan and will occur in Iraq. Those who reach power in countries whose atmosphere is saturated with Wahabism commit crimes and injustices (massacres, stealing, etc.) within corruption until they are toppled; sadly, the weak, oppressed ones on earth are those peaceful victims in such countries who suffer a lot, experience hunger and neediness, and get killed.
2- Before establishing democracy, the democratic culture should dominate first through legislative reform and reforming educational systems, while asserting free speech and freedom of expression. Without introducing such reform, a given nation is like a patient suffering from cancer and instead of receiving treatment, its face is heavily made up to give a false impression of being healthy to deceive citizens.
3- Without introducing immediate reform on all levels (esp. religious reform), Egypt will remain entrapped in the vicious circle of the struggle between ruling military men and the power-seeking Wahabis (i.e., the terrorist MB and Salafists and their likes), and this will result in more terrorist attacks and bloodshed. This is a lose-lose situation. Until when this status quo would be maintained?!
4- There is not the smallest hope in any change introduced by the citizens themselves from the Egyptian nation. There is a slight hope that change and reform are going to be introduced by the ruling pharaoh. It is OK that Al-Sisi would rule Egypt as president for the rest of his life; tyrannical rulers typically stay enthroned until overthrown or until they die, whereas the Egyptian nation remains the same and it cannot change the status quo whatever it may be. Hence, nothing remains except demanding from Al-Sisi to introduce types of reform on all levels which will lead to the democratic transition that will take several years and some durations of the reign of other presidents after Al-Sisi. We mean to say that the process of democratic transition will take some decades so that citizens would learn the meaning and culture of human rights, citizenship rights, and democracy. When such a culture is firmly established, citizens will learn that no one is above the laws issued by a Parliament whose members are elected because they represent the citizens whose awareness is raised and who are no longer deceived by empty slogans because they use their mind to reflect, think, and take decisions.
5- President Al-Sisi, like all other ruling pharaohs, need clergymen to support his rule. Of course Azharite clergymen and the head of Al-Azhar know this fact very well; this is why the head of Al-Azhar adamantly refuses to introduce religious reform or even to reform Azharite curricula. Al-Sisi has to choose either to remove the head of Al-Azhar from his post in order to peacefully introduce the much-needed religious reform (and other types of reform) and to acquire political legitimacy among citizens, or to beg the head of Al-Azhar many times for assistance which will never be of any use, and this will make the president refrain from introducing reform while feeling afraid of the nation and the future and staying away from the citizens.
Lastly:
1- From 1982 until now, we repeat, without tedium or weariness, the call for the introduction of immediate religious reform; Mubarak never responded to this call; we do not care if President Al-Sisi would respond or ignore this call. A reformist thinker typically writes while addressing the next generations.
2- Will the next generations hear our voice one day?!