The Execution of the Shiite Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr Is a Nail in the Coffin of the KSA Regime

Was published in Arabic in January, 04, 2016

Translated by Ahmed Fathy

1- The assassination of the Egyptian thinker Dr. Farag Fouda has been a turning point in the history of the terrorist Wahabism in Egypt. The terrorist Wahabi clergymen of Al-Azhar institution have issued a fatwa (i.e. the so called religious edict or view) that urges the killing of Fouda and ourselves – Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour – and this edict appeared in a famous statement in the Salafist-trend right-wing newspaper (Al-Nour) in an article signed in the name of Dr. Abdul-Ghaffar Aziz, who used to preside at the time the so-called the Forum of Al-Azhar Scholars. Within days of this edict, Fouda was shot at the doorstep of his office in June 1992, in Cairo. The terrorist group "Jamaa Islameiyya" admitted that its members masterminded and executed the assassination of Fouda to apply the edict of Al-Azhar scholars. It is never heroic to assassinate a peaceful thinker and writer who used to own nothing but his pen. Fouda used to predict his assassination and wrote about it in advance. After his assassination, we expected to be soon assassinated. This would have been very easy for the Wahabi terrorists, especially that at the time, we confined ourselves to our home in the (low-class) district of Al-Matariyya in Cairo, a district famous at the time to house the largest number of criminal Wahabi Salafists and the criminal terrorist MB group members. We never feared such types of criminals; in fact, we wrote vehemently several articles, that appeared in the leftist newspaper (Al-Ahaly), to attack and criticize the terrorists: Wahabi Salafists, the terrorist MB group, Al-Azhar clergymen, as well as the terrorist sheikh Al-Ghazaly (an MB Azharite sheikh), who used to defend the assassins of Fouda in court. Some of our articles carry titles such as the following: "Who Killed Dr. Farag Fouda", "They Killed Him Because He Did Not Believe in Them", "Sheikh Al-Ghazaly Is Defeated by Fouda after His Assassination", and "Sheikh Al-Ghazaly Refutes Sheikh Al-Ghazaly". Our criticism and attack leveled at such criminals lasted for one year, alongside with compiling all articles written by Fouda in one volume published shortly after his assassination as well as publishing his famous debate in Cairo International Book Forum, in which he managed to refute Sheikh Al-Ghazaly's views face to face before a large audience. Another book complied by us registers another debate in Alexandria, Egypt, in which Fouda exposed meticulously the dangers of the terrorist Wahabi political trend. Fouda used to express himself as a Muslim who took pride in his faith and objected totally to making use of religion in politics and for political aims. Later on, our late friend Dr. M. Abou Al-Esaad requested from us to write a book on negating the notion of killing 'renegades' or 'apostates' who reject Islam, as a false notion that is against the Quran. Our book covering that subject was published after one year of the assassination of Fouda, and it was printed in several editions. This book was published as well in (Al-Ahrar) newspaper and Al-Kahira Magazine. This book has been translated into English. Our next book covers the subject of negating another notion falsely attributed by ancient scholars to Islam: inquisition. Several edicts issued by terrorist clergymen and other terrorist fanatics appeared to call for our assassination as an 'apostate' who insulted Islam. We expected to be killed anytime. We could have been killed easily, but no attempt at our life had ever occurred – yet. The reason: the trend of Wahabi terror in Egypt has lost ground in Egypt when it incited the assassination of Fouda. After his death, he emerged victorious over Wahabis and all types of terrorists. His ideas and books spread all over Egypt. Ironically, Fouda's description of them as terrorists was realized by them. By his assassination, they are deemed forever as terrorist killers to their marrow, however vehement their raised banners of the so-called moderation. They cannot refute criticism; they silence it by shooting people. This has led the terrorist Wahabis to decide that instead of killing us, they had much better to ignore us. Apparently, the terrorist Wahabis have figured out that if they commissioned our assassination, thousands of people will read and publish our books, articles, and edicts. People would have paid attention to our existence as a thinker/reformist if we have been killed. Inevitably, the terrorists opted for restricting us and keeping us away from visual and auditory media as much as they could.

2- Egyptian terrorist Wahabis and their like learned this lesson after the assassination of Fouda. The same lesson was not learned by the KSA royal family. Their execution of the Shiite sheikh Al-Nimr, one of the main opposition figures in the KSA is the second nail in the coffin of the KSA. The first nail is the futile war against Yemen. The very first target of this military aggression against Yemen is to create a reputation for the idle young man the son of the current KSA king, Muhammad Ibn Salman. This idle son controls his royal father who is rumored to have Alzheimer disease. This idle young man is the cause of the fiercest religious/doctrinal military war being concocted now between the Sunnites and the Shiites. Secular regional and international wars end usually in peace treaties among the parties concerned. Religious strife or wars go on for centuries and influence several generations. The KSA is committing now this grave error in the Middle East: the strife of doctrines would remain for centuries destroying everything, including the KSA royal family members. This escalation of the execution of Al-Nimr who was a peaceful opposition figure who never held arms or weapons; he had nothing but his pen. The KSA royal family could have better tolerate his presence, sermons, and writings. They could have imprisoned him at his home, by restricting his movements outside it. Executing him at these critical times asserts the total blindness and lack of political insight of the KSA regime guided and led by this idle young man, M. Ibn Salman, the crown prince, whom people and retinue cheer by saying long live M. Ibn Salman! It seems perhaps that this idle youth and his royal family will never enjoy a long life!

3- The KSA tyranny is similar to that of Moses' Pharaoh in adopting the policy of (divide and conquer). This policy creates a majority filled with hatred toward a demonized, persecuted, and despised minority in one society. Such minority is persecuted in contrast to the deification of Moses' Pharaoh and his royal family and retinue. "Pharaoh exalted himself in the land, and divided its people into factions. He persecuted a group of them, slaughtering their sons, while sparing their daughters. He was truly a corrupter." (28:4). The KSA royal family members are more criminal than Moses' Pharaoh. The Israelites used to be newcomers to Egypt during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt. When the Egyptians regained their entire land after fighting and defeating the Hyksos, they persecuted the Israelites who were close to the Hyksos. The opposite has happened in Arabia; the Shiites lived around the Persian Gulf for centuries before the emergence of the KSA royal family members and other royal families in the Gulf monarchies. The Shiites are still there in their homelands. They are the rightful owners of the land. Abdel-Aziz Al-Saud, the founder of the KSA, occupied the oil-rich Shiite East area of Al-Ihsaa. He early and readily began the persecution of Shiites in that area by forbidding them to perform any Shiite rituals. Details of this episode in history are found in our book published here on our website titled: "The KSA Opposition Movements against Wahabism in the 20^th Century", Al-Nimr began his discourse/sermons to call for political reform. He was briefly incarcerated in 2004 and 2006. He led the calls for peaceful opposition and protest in 2011. Such peaceful protests have been met with usual oppression by the KSA. Al-Nimr was persecuted and subjected to a series of investigations and imprisonment periods due to his political activities. Accusations leveled against him included sedition and the call for foreign interference in the KSA affairs. Finally, he was arrested on 5/8/2012 after his support of massive demonstrations that broke out in Al-Qutaif area in February 2011. Policemen hunted him down and shot him in the thigh. He was arrested and later on, he received a death sentence on 10/15/2014. The execution – by cutting his head off by the sword – took place on Saturday 1/2/2016. The KSA authorities have tried to justify his execution by claiming that sedition and its evils will end in that manner. This idle justification is copied from the fatwas/edicts of the fanatical Salafist scholar Ibn Taymiya who died in 1328 A.D. Wahabism has revived all his views, and they are now being applied by the KSA royal family to Al-Nimr and countless others.

4- Before the execution of Al-Nimr, he was a mere local opposition figure who influence never reached outside the KSA borders. Few people knew about him as a mere Shiite clergyman who defended the rights of the Shiites inside the KSA. No one outside the KSA ever heard his sermons or heeded his call for reform. Now that he has been executed, his name will grow popular and will be known all over the world. His videos are now being watched by millions via the internet. We ourselves have discovered after listening to his sermons that he was a noble militant of thought and the word, not an armed fighter, who called for liberty and human dignity and justice for all.

5- Of course, we do not approve of his Shiite creed that deifies mortal human beings – the same disapproval goes for the rest of the Muhammadans: the Sufis and the Wahabi Sunnites as well as the Christians and all followers of creeds that deify human beings. This difference between such followers of such creeds and the Quranists will be judged by God in the Day of Judgment. As for this transient life, we care for peaceful demeanor regardless of creed or lack of it. There can never be a happy medium or a moderate way between the criminal tyrants and their followers on the one hand, and those who face and fight injustice and the unjust to support the weak on the other hand. Those who remain silent instead of facing tyranny help tyrants to go on in their injustice and tyranny. The execution of Al-Nimr is a scandal that exposes the KSA royal family and their allies of the Middle East tyrants as well as Wahabi clergymen controlled by the KSA royal family. Let us be reminded of the Wahabi Sunnite fatwa that defends and supports the tyranny of the KSA royal family: the deified Sunnite ruler/imam has the right to exterminate one-third of the nation to reform the conditions of the other two thirds! Such erroneous view was reiterated by the late former head sheikh of Al-Azhar, in Cairo, Dr. M. Sayed Tantawi to justify Mubarak's tyranny. We exposed this view as sham, dangerous, reckless, and un-Islamic in our articles at the time, in the 1990s. The KSA tyranny exemplified by the execution of Al-Nimr is being cheered and lauded by Arab media now. Such supporters of tyranny are unjust people who deserve the same fate of all tyrants in history. May God have mercy on the soul of Al-Nimr and curse those who ordered his execution and those who cheered this grave injustice!

6- The religious discourse of Al-Nimr, in his videos uploaded on the internet, shows that he was a peaceful fighter for liberty, justice, and human dignity and against injustice and tyranny. He used to be vociferous while expecting the dangers of the KSA royal family members' persecution and punishment. He was ready to die for his stances, and he used to call and urge others to adopt his stances. Having watched his videos, we can say that he used to be against all tyrant Sunnite and Shiite rulers in Egypt, the KSA, the Gulf monarchies, and Syria. He used to attack Bashar Al-Assad. He never hid his stances with vague phrases; he used to criticize the unjust mentioning their names in rare courage. His frankness did not stop him from adhering to peaceful means in opposition. He used to refuse to carry arms and weapons. He used to advise all demonstrators not to carry any arms and to stick to peaceful protests. He used to tell them not to give the KSA authorities the chance to shoot demonstrators under the pretext of their carrying guns. We have heard him in a video asserting that the Sunnites and the Shiite should love and respect one another and live together in peace. In his call, he used to invoke the Quran and to get inspired by it: he used the verses that warn against injustice and others that urge justice, liberty, and human dignity. He used to urge all support for the weak ones who suffer injustice and to never give up to the unjust ones. He used to urge the Shiites to be patient when their possessions and money were confiscated. He used to urge the notion of being ready to suffer all sacrifices and to be patient with being tortured, killed, imprisoned, etc. for the cause of liberty, dignity, and justice for all.

7- This is our call to all free people worldwide: share via the internet all videos of Al-Nimr to face and refute the lies and falsehoods of the KSA royal family and its cronies and corrupt clergymen. That way, Al-Nimr will remain forever a thorn in their side. The execution of Al-Nimr is the biggest nail in the coffin of the KSA regime – the kingdom that has been the major axis of evil on the planet. The whole world will be safer and more secure if the KSA Wahabism is controlled and made to disappear forever.

The Best Discourse:

"And thus We set up in every city its leading wicked sinners, to conspire in it, but they conspire only against themselves, and they do not realize it." (6:123)

God says nothing but the Truth.