Hello everybody,

My name is Salah El Nagar

I am an Egyptian Writer.

I came here to the UK as refugee because I suffered persecution in my home country because I am a writer who has published articles on human Rights and Freedom. I was also involved in political demonstrations against the Egyptian government. In addition to I am related to:

DR. Ahmed Subhy Mansour an Egyptian American activist who is an Islamic scholar with expertise in Islamic history, culture, theology and politics.  I was forced to leave Egypt because of my support for his teachings. He has been in exile in America since 2001.

I remember well, when I was a student in primary school and I studied Muslim history and about their wars with the other nations, the so called Islamic expansions. This bloody history killed the spirit of the innocent child. I was back then.

I thought that The Quran ordered the Islamic expansions, that it ordered those people to attack other nations to force them to become Muslim. But I am very lucky because I have a great uncle and teacher who taught me well that those Islamic expansions were against the spirit of The Quran and Islam. The true message invited us to towards; tolerance, acceptance, freedom, mercy, human Rights and kindness.

My uncle teaches with evidence that the Arab conquests led to one type of terrible violation and transgression under the leadership of the first three caliphs Abu Bakr, Omar, and Othman; this is the violation of Islamic sharia when Arabs committed aggressions against peaceful nations that never fought Arabs inside or outside Arabia. Fighting in the Quran is urged ONLY in the case of self-defence.

He taught me too, that there are two different visions of Islam. The first is seeing Islam through its divine source, namely the Quran, and the method of this vision is to understand Islam through its own terminology and language. The Arabic language, like any other language, is a living language whose terminology and meanings change depending on the time and place, and also depending on the cults. The schools of thought and societies in general. Therefore he, who wants to approach Islam through its divine source the Quran, needs to understand the Quranic language, then to proceed without any preconceived ideas to trace the subject under research. It’s essential to go through all the verses connected to the subject being searched. There are two kinds of Quranic verses: [Mohkamat] or the verses that have the specific meanings, and [Motashabehat] or the verses that have details of the same subject mentioned in the first kind. It’s easy to collect all the verses of [Motashabehat] and understand them by its [Mohkamat] verse of the same subject. We have to understand The Quran by reading the Quran with his own language, not by reading interpretation of the Quran.

Through my studies. I found that there is a contradiction between the culture of terrorists and Islam.  Jihad, according to the Quran, means to defend your country only; not to start a war, nor to attack other people who do not attack you. God says, "And fight in the cause of God, only those who are fighting you. And do not transgress the limit, because God does not like the transgressors” (2/ 190). According to this Quranic verse, Ben laden and other extreme groups in the Middle East and anyone fighting in the name any religion like Isis for example are the enemy of God and the enemy of Islam.

In Islam, war is an exception. You have to fight to defend yourself and your country, but only after you have tried all peaceful ways to avoid war.  Then, at last, you have to defend your country.  This is in many verses in the Quran.  These are the brief laws of Jihad in Islam.

The early Arab Muslims changed this peaceful face of Islam when they established their mighty empire in the Middle Ages, giving Islam a notorious name. The Sunni sect was created during this powerful empire to justify its policy in the name of Islam. So, the old Sunni Scholars attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, two centuries and more after his death, thousands of false sayings named Sunna.  For example, they claimed that he said, "I was commanded to fight all the people until they testify that there is no god but One God, and I am the messenger of God.” That means to force all people to be Muslims.

This contradicts more than one thousand of the Quranic verses. This saying, which is attributed falsely to the Prophet Mohammed, is a favourite of Ben Laden and all fanatic Wahhabi Muslims. They uphold Jihad accordingly to restore and re-establish the Muslim Arab Empire in our time, using their middle Ages bloody tradition named Sunna.

I found also that the Quran says that the Lord of all beings decided that we are all equal brothers and sisters, the issue of but one father and one mother despite our differences; and that the Lord has made us differ in colours and languages in order to learn about each other, not to fight and destroy each other. The interface of cultures is what drives us onwards, towards the horizons of the mind, and affirms our humility.

This is my opinion in the wars as a Quranist writer and I have another opinion about wars in general:

In recent times. People everywhere in the world have undergone a moral change. There’s a kind of moral decline. The main reason is that people are so materialistic now. Everyone cares only about money and lives for the moment. A money-grubbing attitude is now the canker of most societies.

It is a material world. Knowing that life is so short, people have that desire to achieve and possess as much as possible. This has become an international phenomenon. They want to enjoy their lives no matter what. In the past, honour, chastity and virtue were valuable.

I am talking about the majority of people. Many things are no longer valuable now. People seek joy and happiness at any cost. All of this is the result of people’s absolute belief in materialism and individualism.

Everyone cares only for themselves. People no longer feel responsible for others or anything else.

They no longer have strong faith. It’s become a superficial faith. They think they are religious when they carry a rosary. Faith has become a matter of appearances, not true fear of God. Attitudes have really changed. All these things I have mentioned have eventually caused what I call moral pollution, which is so dangerous.

Pollution of air, water and food is not as dangerous as this moral decline, as the latter can bring the world to an end.

To cap this all, there is a pollution of the human mentality. This is disastrous. It is the most deadly of all. I’ll give you an example; statistics show that the world spends many billions of dollars on weapons. All this money to have weapons. Arsenals, atomic bombs and missiles.

Many billions of dollars that could be spent on curing patients, and educating people. This is really weird.

What’s to become of all these weapons?

If they’re used, it is a disaster, and if not, it is foolishness. What’s the use of spending that money on such destructive weapons?

They claim that all this is a kind of self-defence. I call this the pollution of mind. This is a sort of craziness

.

In fact, destruction has a long history, throughout man’s existence on earth: those professional devastators, starting from the Tartars and the Hyksos; they burnt down countries and tore down everything. That was total insanity.

Some groups, such as the Kharijites and the caramathians, used Islam as a façade. They said they were true Muslims, while they killed pilgrims, destroyed the Kaaba; it is like Christian church. They claimed to be Muslims. Even now there are extremists like them who understand religion as sanctioning killing and causing change by force.

There are different methods of brainwashing people. For example, the T.V, newspapers and radio, are used to pollute people’s mind and to lead them into the wrong way.

That’s so dangerous. This is mental pollution, especially when it takes a legitimate form; such ideas are shown in books, novels and drama. All of them have a violent background. Viewers get excited, stirred up and want to become destructive.

To me, mental pollution is the most dangerous of all. It’s the most dangerous because it is related to manners. Moral pollution and mental pollution are related to behaviour. This can lead to insanity, corruption, cruelty, violence and destruction that could bring about the end of the world.

The role of TV and preachers are of great account. The mission of social counsellors, parents, schools, colleges and universities. This is very important, as they will guide the youth in the right way. Youth has to be guided. We must emphasize the essence of human rights and freedom. We have to teach our young people mercy, tolerance, civilization, knowledge, science, education, freedom, magnanimity, forbearance, patience and the will to forgive and argue in a better way.

I began by saying I am a writer. Government and people have to support thinkers and writers who are working for peace and tolerance instead of celebrities such as actors and football players because thinkers and writers are the best solution to violence.

Thank you so much for listening

Salah El Nagar