“Supportyour gods”: The Saudi Ill-Gotten Money behind the Incarceration of Mr. Islam Al-Beheiry
Was published in October 12, 2015
Translated by Ahmed Fathy
Firstly: Quranists and Mr. Islam Al-Beheiry:
1- The researcher, lawyer, journalist, and former TV presenter Mr. Al-Beheiry has affirmed several times in his banned TV show that he is not a Quranist. We confirm his statement; he is not one of us. Until now, Mr. Al-Beheiry still believes in some of the so-called Sunnite hadiths written in the Abbasid Era and interpreted in the Mameluke Era. Yet, he has been sentenced in an Egyptian court to a five-year imprisonment with labor. His accusation is one of the favorite ones used by the criminal Salafis/Wahabis in Egypt who are similar to ISIS terrorists in their thought: disrespect and contempt of religions!
2- The real so-called 'crime' of Mr. Al-Beheiry according to the Egyptian Salafis is his daring discussion and questioning of some Sunnite fixed notions. His intellectual scrutiny to some of these notions of the Salafi ancestors included reviews examining the Salafi/Wahabi books that contain countless myths, fables, and falsehoods. Salafis/Wahabis, in Egypt and elsewhere, worship what they have received of tomes and volumes from their Arab ancestors of scholars/imams. They have considered the TV show and articles of Mr. Al-Beheiry as a threat and a way to ridicule and to put to question their Salafi/Wahabi/Sunnite creed. They have cooperated in evil and aggression: they sentenced Mr. Al-Beheiry to the biggest punishment possible in our days: a five-year imprisonment term with labor. If they were ruling Egypt, they might have killed him as a renegade or an apostate who has forsaken religion and become an unbeliever. This is their Sunnite laws that have nothing to do with real Islam; i.e., the Quran.
3- Unquestionable facts: Saudis managed, with great success, to spread Wahabism (= Salafism) in Egypt. Saudi money has bought several disciples of Wahabism in Egypt in all high positions in the state in order to stop, persecute, and gag anyone who dares to question and undermine Wahabism/Salafism, unless this person is protected and supported by a high-rank official body in Egypt. Saudi money has been essential in the clampdown of Quranists in Egypt since the late 1980s and until now. Saudi money has been the cause – as we have written before in a previous article – to our own persecution and imprisonment in Egypt. One has struggled to free one's country – beloved Egypt – from the Wahabi creed of a foreign country (the KSA) that has invaded and tried to destroy Egypt. Yet, the ones who have taken revenge from us are Saudis who control Egyptian authorities in the era of Mubarak. Instead of protecting us, these authorities have persecuted us, instigated by Saudi authorities! The Saudi Wahabi persecution we have faced in Egypt has been a step to orient us: we have converted from being a moderate Sunnite person in the early 1980s to a Quranist who believes in the Quran alone. My articles, books, and researches based on the holy Quran managed to destroy the holy cows of the earthly human-made and fabricated Sunnite creed. These holy cows comprise all the so-called hadiths, fiqh, legislature, 'holy' tomes and volumes, imams, and the so-called Prophet Muhammad's companions who invaded countries and killed millions and have been treated as gods after their death. We are afraid of the probability that the Wahabi, Salafi, Sunnite 'holy' myths under the umbrella of the Ibn Hanbal fanatic doctrine might lead the Wahabi terrorists to kill and hide the body of Mr. Al-Beheiry in a garbage bin.
Secondly: the Saudi money and mean creatures in Egypt.
1- With Saudi money, the leaders of Al-Azhar University and Mosque have converted in the early 1980s from moderate Sunnite creed to staunch supporters and fanatic advocators of Wahabism. Instead of doing their duty, as per Egyptian law, to elucidate facts of Islam (the Quran) and to reform Muslims, Azharite leaders have competed with the Ministry of Religious Endowments (Awqaf) and the Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah (the Azharite high fatwa ''religious views'' institution in Egypt) in receiving Saudi financial sponsorship. This type of competition has made them subservient not to the Egyptian regime or to Cairo, but to the Saudi king and to Riyadh. These mean creatures can never be deemed as scholars or thinkers: they compete in meanness and betrayal. They have betrayed Islam (the Quran alone) and Egypt as well. They compete in ignorance as well; they have no time to read and think creatively to grasp and contemplate the Quranic verses, because their time is divided between prostrating for some time before the local rulers in high positions and before the Saudi king most of the time. The ignorance of Azharite leaders has made them unable to defend Wahabism when it is put to question intellectually by anyone. Hence, the Saudi ill-gotten money is readily procured to protect those Azharite men by controlling mean greedy men in all governmental bodies (national security, police, Ministry of Interior, lawyers, courts, and mass media). Accordingly, agents of Wahabism with Saudi money tarnish the reputation of Egypt as well as the reputation of Islam until the present moment. Once anyone dares to discuss the line of thought called Wahabism/Salafism and Sunnite Ibn Hanbal fanatic doctrine, one is promptly accused of contempt and disrespect of Islam, despite the fact that these notions and lines of thought were nonexistent in the time of Prophet Muhammad. We, Quranist, accuse Wahabis and Salafis of contempt of Islam because they use it name in acts of terror and injustice.
Thirdly: Between unbelievers in the Qorayish tribe and the unbelievers of Sunnite Wahabism/Salafism in our age.
1- Islam according to Salafis and Wahabis consists merely of words and books of several mortals such as: Al-Bokhary, Ibn Hanbal, Ibn Taimiyya, M. Ibn Abdul-Wahab, and Ibn Al-Baz. Accordingly, Prophet Muhammad who existed and died before the emergence of such mortal people, is not a Muslim, as he never read their books and never knew about such people! If Muhammad were to be raised now from the dead and walk in streets of Riyadh to ask about the above-mentioned mortal gods, he would tell people to reject beliefs inherited from their forefathers and believe only in the Quran. The clergy would certainly put him to death, as they will deem him as an unbeliever! If he were to walk in the streets of Cairo, he would have been imprisoned, as he would be accused of contempt of religions!
2- Suffering underwent by Prophet Muhammad, and weak believers at his time, is now repeated with those who adhere to the Quran alone and reject all other discourses in religion. Quranists thus apply the following Quranic verses: "…Which message, besides this, will they believe in?" (7:185), "In what message, beyond this, will they believe?"(77:50), "In which message, after God and His revelations, will they believe?"(45:6).
3- Unbelievers of Qorayish tribe in the time of Prophet Muhammad used to command Muhammad to worship and revere their saints and 'holy' tombs. God says about them in the Quran: "Say, "Is it other mortals, instead of God, you instruct me to worship, you ignorant ones?""(39:64). God describes them clearly, and their likes of people everywhere in all eras, as ignorant people.
4- Many traits unite unbelievers of the Qorayish tribe in the 7th century A.D. and today's Salafis/Wahabis, chief among them are ignorance as well as coercing others in matters of religion. Both coercion and ignorance are closely linked; ignorant people believe staunchly in myths and are unable to defend their mythological beliefs and notions. That is why they resort always to violence and threatening to coerce people in religious matters and issues. Salafis/Wahabis consider it their 'holy' duty to kill whoever dares to question their tenets and notions of Wahabism.
5- The Wahabi thought is based on the fanatic doctrines of Ibn Hanbal and the line of thought adopted and advocated by Ibn Taimiyya. These propagators of such doctrines are famous for coercion and violence against those who question and undermine their ideas. They used to give the so-called renegade or apostate a grace period to announce publicly to 'repent' and return to their creed. If their commands are not executed, they promptly kill the thinker without judging him, even if he left the town! This is Middle Ages barbarism. This was written and propagated by Ibn Taimiyya in his books and fatwas. Such ideas have been propagated in the 20th century by terrorist thinkers such as the MB member Sayed Sabek in his book titled "Fiqh of the Sunna" and by Abou Bakr Al-Jazaeiry in his book ''Methodology of a Muslim''. In their terrorist thought, any free thinker moderate Sunnite who dares to question any of notions and ideas propagated by imams ought to be promptly killed!
6- We remember that Quranists sentenced to imprisonment in 2001 in Egypt, when accused of contempt of religion, they announced many times in court their ''repentance'', to try to avoid imprisonment, in vain. What a shame!
Fourthly: Support your gods:
1- Abraham as a young man found his people in misguidance and tried to convince them of their error in worship of idols and they could no refute his attack against their gods when he destroyed the idols. They put him to trial after he proved their creed as a group of falsehoods. Let us examine and reflect on the story in the Quran to see what we might learn from it: "We gave Abraham his integrity formerly, and We knew him well. When he said to his father and his people, "What are these statues to which you are devoted?'' They said, "We found our parents worshiping them." He said, "You and your parents are in evident error." They said, "Are you telling us the truth, or are you just playing?" He said, "Your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, the One who created them, and I bear witness to that."By God, I will have a plan for your statues after you have gone away." So he reduced them into pieces, except for their biggest, that they may return to it. They said, "Who did this to our gods? He is certainly one of the wrongdoers." They said, "We heard a youth mentioning them. He is called Abraham." They said, "Bring him before the eyes of the people, so that they may witness." They said, "Are you the one who did this to our gods, O Abraham?" He said, "But it was this biggest of them that did it. Ask them, if they can speak." Then they turned to one another, and said, "You yourselves are the wrongdoers."But they reverted to their old ideas: "You certainly know that these do not speak." He said, "Do you worship, instead of God, what can neither benefit you in anything, nor harm you? Fie on you, and on what you worship instead of God. Do you not understand?" They said, "Burn him and support your gods, if you are going to act." "(21:51-68)
2- What are the lessons drawn from such a great Quranic story in our miserable age of terror against thinking?
2/1: Unbelievers among the people of Abraham resemble Salafis/Wahabis of our age now; Wahabis worship what is inherited from their forefathers. But people of Abraham were less violent that Salafis I our age: unbelievers debated Abraham without violence at first although he showed contempt of their idols and dared to declare that to their faces. They did not try to burn him alive until he destroyed the idols actually by his axe. They took him to trial to question him, and they did not try to burn him until he insulted them. Whereas Salafis / Wahabis in their laws condemn anyone to death without trial if one dares to discuss their notions and without giving a chance for repentance. This is a major difference between unbelievers of the people of Abraham and today's Salafis/Wahabis in violence level and in the passage of time: Salafis make us return to the age of proto-man!
2/2: All Salafi lines of thought, old and new, in any century, before and after the advent of Islam, worship mortals (saints, imams, etc.) and things. That is why the sentence/motto ''support your gods" unites all clergy of Salafism. Their gods are things, stones, tombs, and mortals; hence, these gods cannot defend themselves. When attacked or reviled, their worshippers have to defend them. The query raised here is as follows: if these gods cannot defend themselves, why Salafis worship them and ask their aid and direct prayers to them? Let us imagine if someone decides, with an axe, to destroy a 'holy' tomb, just as Abraham done with idols, and the mission is accomplished, what will happen? If a person reviled and cursed Al-Bokhary in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, could Al-Bokhary defend himself? In all cases, these mortal gods cannot defend themselves and need followers to undertake this mission of defense: "And can neither help them, nor help their own selves?"(7:192) "Those you call upon besides Him cannot help you, nor can they help themselves." (7:197). Likewise, Wahabism is like a holy cow that needs defense from its followers against doubt and questioning. Wahabism, like all fabricated human-made creeds, cannot stand in any society that is open and enjoys religious freedom without laws of ill-repute like ''contempt of religion'' in the Egyptian law used to protect Wahabism against its foes. Free religious thinking and its intellectuals should have full liberty; all laws of ill-repute like ''the law against contempt of religion'' must be annulled as it restricts freedom of speech and thought and liberty of expression. If this is to happen someday, Wahabism will vanish with its armies of shameful imams, sheikhs, ignorance, terrorism, and darkness.
2/3: Polytheism or unbelief in faith matters consists of two types: intellectual and practical. The practical type is worship of material idols like 'holy' shrines/tombs, idols and statues, and dead men and women (the so-called saints). This applies to most followers of fabricated, man-made, earthly creeds like Shiite, Sunnite, Sufi creeds as well as Buddhism. As for the intellectual type of unbelief, it is worship and sanctification of 'holy' tomes and volumes of Wahabi/ Sunnite, Sufi, and Shiite creeds. They carry them anywhere without full knowledge and study of them: they remind us of the following Quranic verse: "The example of those who were entrusted with the Torah, but then failed to uphold it, is like the donkey carrying loads of volumes and tomes "(62:5). Likewise, those who have been given the Quran, the Muslims, have rejected it by not adhering to it and instead, they stick to tomes and volumes (like those of Al-Bokhary). They did not even study them properly to find their contradictions. They are like donkeys with loads of books on their backs! This applies to Salafis everywhere in all eras. When their holy cows (dead men, tombs, and heritage traditional books) are refuted and undermined, they realize how silly they are and how crippled their gods/idols are: "We have destined for Hell multitudes of jinn and humans. They have hearts with which they do not understand. They have eyes with which they do not see. They have ears with which they do not hear. These are like cattle. In fact, they are further astray. These are the heedless. "(7:179) "Have you seen him who chose his desire as his god? Would you be an agent for him?Or do you assume that most of them hear or understand? They are just like cattle, but even more errant in their way. "(25:43-44). Hence, this is a personal matter to Salafis and Wahabis that threatens their existence: ''support your gods'' means here ''support and defend your existence, power, authority, wealth high positions, etc.''
Lastly:
There is no solution to that grave problem except the establishment of a secular democratic state that respects human rights and asserts absolute liberty of creed, cult, thinking, expression…etc. to every citizen. This is the real ''Islamic'' state, and against it the unjust theocratic state advocated by Wahabi/Salafi, Sunnite, and Shiite Muhammadans.