Pouring Our Thoughts in An Article as A Witness against This Rotten, Corrupt Era
Published in July 31, 2019
Translated by: Ahmed Fathy
Firstly:
1- In the countries ruled by tyrants, songs about the love of homeland spread in the local media; such 'patriotic' songs cherished by tyrants reflect cheap hypocrisy; enthroned tyrants are the biggest traitors who betray their countries. Such songs of 'patriotism' do not reflect the love of one's homeland; rather, they are composed, sung, and aired to flatter enthroned tyrants who are traitors. For instance, Hosni Mubarak who caused our suffering hunger and persecution for long years in Egypt has stolen US$ 70 billion from Egypt! Who does really love Egypt: we, Dr. A. S. Mansour, or Mubarak?!
2- The real love for our homeland, Egypt, is reflected in our being the preacher and caller for peaceful religious and political reform, while seeking neither fame, power/authority, nor financial rewards. Our only aim is to save our beloved Egypt which we see as sinking into the lower depths of a bottomless abyss and on the brink of civil strife and bloodshed. We have been persecuted severely in Egypt; assassination attempts occurred to our person; endless list of accusations is still being leveled at our person; we read on Arabic websites (and receive via email) insults and verbal abuse against our person in what is tantamount to character assassination. Sadly, we had to flee from Egypt to settle in the USA in order to go on with our peaceful, intellectual jihad for the sake of Islam and for the sake of Egypt, leaving behind loved ones, relatives, and family members who are still persecuted.
3- We left Egypt on the 16th of Oct., 2001, shortly before the warrant of our arrest was issued. We never visited Egypt ever since. It is impossible for our person to visit Egypt until now; our only comfort in not being able to visit it is that we detest seeing Egypt dominated by tyranny and ruled by the mob and the base, vile persons. During our stay in our new homeland, VA, the USA, and while we are unable to visit Egypt – even for a very brief duration – our own mother died and we wept and mourned her loss a great deal since we could not attend her funeral; the same occurred when our brother Dr. Mohamed Alaa-Eddine Mansour (the head of the Oriental Languages Department, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University) died; the same occurred when our brother, (the medical doctor) Dr. Al-Sayed Rifaat Mansour, died. Our remaining sister still lives in Egypt, but she is very ill and might die soon. We wish to see her before she – or our person – would die. Two years ago, our sister requested – twice – an entry visa to come to the USA to visit our person; yet, her request was refused twice by the American Embassy in Cairo, despite the fact that we have written a letter to the U. S. Department of State to request granting the entry visa to our sister so that we can see her before her (or our own) death. It seems to us that the USA is quite heartless!
Secondly:
1- Our dear Egyptian-Canadian relative is Dr. Othman M. Ali; his father is the late son of our paternal uncle; since his childhood, as an orphan, Dr. Othman Ali is like our eldest son even before our marriage and before the birth of our six sons. Dr. Othman Ali has stood by our side within our peaceful, intellectual jihad for religious and political reform. After our becoming a political asylee in the USA, Dr. Othman Ali and our sons faced persecution in Egypt; our sons came to the USA one by one; Dr. Othman Ali became a political asylee in Canada in 2005. Because of certain circumstances, Dr. Othman Ali lived alone in Canada for a long while (before his wife and children joined him), and despite his chronic ailment, he is the only supervisor of our website (www.ahl-alquran.com) on whose efforts and enthusiasm we rely very much. May the Lord God bless and reward him. When his only sister died alone in Egypt, Dr. Othman Ali wept and mourned her loss a great deal since he could not attend her funeral; he, like our person, cannot visit Egypt. Yesterday (30th of July, 2019), the wedding party of his eldest daughter, Ms. Nourhan Othman, was held in Cairo, Egypt. We have invited Dr. Othman Ali to come to visit us in VA, the USA, to celebrate this wedding; we attended the wedding through Facebook only; we communicated with the bride (and her mother), the bridegroom, and our relatives and friends who attended the wedding party. Our joy was marred by sorrow as we cannot visit Egypt. We would like to thank those who attended the wedding party: our comrade in the struggle and enlightenment the Egyptian-American political sociologist Dr. Saad-Eddine Ibrahim, and the friends who came with him: Dr. Mustafa Al-Nabarawi, Mr. Hamdi Al-Basir, Mr. Ahmad Shaaban, Mr. Shereef Al-Guindi, and Mr. Abdel-Raouf Abdel-Hameed. May the Lord God bless and reward all of them.
2- Dr. Othman Ali visits our person in VA, the USA, on very rare, special occasions; we seized the chance of his presence in our house along with our two sons who help with the technical support of our website (i.e., our son Mr. Amir Mansour) and who supervise our YouTube channel and make the videos (i.e., our son the director Mr. Mohamed Mansour) in order to discuss the question we have evaded for several years: What will happen to our website and our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/ahlalquran1/featured) after our own death? A mechanism must be introduced or a panel must be formed in order to maintain the existence of our website and YouTube channel after our death. Sadly, Quranism-hating, Wahabi hackers never cease in their attempts to destroy our website; Mr. Amir Mansour is doing his best to protect the website and preserve its contents (i.e., thousands of our articles, comments, and fatwas and tens of books) and to keep off the evil Wahabi hackers who are keen on destroying our writings and aim at making our only website disappear from the cyberspace.
3- Our eldest son, Mr. Mohamed Mansour, has suggested that after shooting the rest of the episodes of our 1000-episode show titled "Quranic Moments", he and our person should begin a new YouTube show of relatively short episodes about the unspoken-of history of the so-called companions of Prophet Muhammad and the generation which followed their footsteps. Mr. Mohamed Mansour said that as long as our Quranist ideas remain within videos uploaded on the YouTube website, there is no fear of their being lost forever. Mr. Amir Mansour said that our website is filled to the brim with our writings which need to be thematically classified to help those who browse through them and search for certain topics (political writings, history, Quranist studies, etc.), and each class should be subdivided...etc. We told our son that we do not have neither the time nor the effort for this arduous, time-consuming task; the suggestion was to request the help of the main members of our website who are our loyal friends for years; we said that in several articles, we called for help but in vain (e.g., see our article http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=19684); everyone is too busy, it seems. Few of them help us enthusiastically at first for a short while, but their enthusiasm fades away sooner than expected. Our voluntary work needs those who can specify time for us daily and can keep their promises; we mean those who are dedicated to Quranism and the endeavors of reform. The circumstances of most Quranists who are members of our website sometimes prevent them from keeping their voluntary work with us for long durations; we always find excuses for them; we thank them for their good intentions and positive feelings; we know that most of them are busy with their earning a living and supporting their families as breadwinners. We have suggested launching new websites whose aim is to publish our writings (published previously on ahl-alquran.com) in chronological order while being thematically classified as desired. Our sons and Dr. Othman admired the idea very much; yet, the question remains: Who would dedicate time and exert efforts voluntarily to do so?! Mr. Amir Mansour suggested that the new website must be named (The Library of Dr. A. S. Mansour) with our entire archive of writings thematically classified with an easy mechanism of searching and browsing through the material by potential readers. Yet, the question lingers still: Who would dedicate time and exert efforts voluntarily to do so?! Who will supervise this new website?! We told our sons and Dr. Othman that the ever-present factor which hinders and cripples us is our impecuniousness. Despite our modest financial means, our website survives since its launching in 2006, thanks to voluntary efforts, enthusiastic cooperation, and few donations from some of our beloved Quranists. We feel too shy to request donations from anyone; we feel shier still when we accept the few donations we receive. Our only excuse is that all of us engage into this peaceful, intellectual jihad voluntarily and dedicate much of our money, time, and effort to it, despite suffering lack of money and scarcity of proper means. We do this to serve True Islam and to gratify our Lord God; we know that our efforts will be rewarded on the Day of Judgment; we know that the Lord God will not waste the reward of those who perform good deeds and that He does not burden any soul beyond its capacity.
4- We are now on a crossroad; our dreams and hopes are so many and so big, but our financial means are very modest.
Thirdly:
1- The ideal solution to the chronic problem of lack of financial sources is not to receive more donations; rather, it is to be able to market and sell the screenplays of the (long and short) movies and TV series we have written (see our article http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=15999).
2- We are trying to market them since 1989 when we were in Egypt facing alone poverty, persecution, and religious tyranny of Azharite clergymen, and political tyranny of the powerful men of the deep state. Until now, no one seems to be interested in purchasing and producing our screenplays. At one time, when we were in Egypt, we managed to sell one of them, and the money helped us buy our apartment in the lower-class Al-Matariyya district in Cairo; until now, this screenplay (of a movie) has never been produced. After settling in the USA, we have written dozens of screenplays; they can help a Middle-Eastern country like Egypt to restore its pioneer status in the fields of moviemaking and TV series (i.e., period drama). We could not market the projects of peaceful reform through the intellectual war (using arts and culture) against Wahabi terrorism by movies and period drama. Our sons have established their production company (Ibn Rushd Media); one short movie has been produced and uploaded (for free) on the Internet about a very important topic: within True Islam (i.e., Quranism), Muslim women can marry peaceful non-Muslim men. Despite the fact that this topic is of vital importance to Muslims in the West, no one cared about this short movie.
3- Sadly, no one cared about our projects of peaceful reform and about helping us to market our screenplays. Inside the USA, there are those who hate the name of Islam besides those who distort the image of Islam; both groups hate Quranists and our person. They hate our showing, through the Quran, the fact that Islam is the religion of mercy, freedom, justice, peace, and human rights. Haters of the name of Islam are so many inside the USA; they prefer the material and terrorism offered by Wahabis who distort God's Celestial Religion and tarnish the reputation of Islam. Such anti-Islam material is everywhere, offered by Sunnite extremists, Wahabi terrorists, evil clergymen, and enthroned Arab tyrants. Sadly, we stand helpless in the USA facing both groups: haters of the name of Islam and those Wahabis who ascribe their heinous crimes and false notions to Islam. We seek donations to help us continue our peaceful, intellectual jihad for the introduction of religious reform. With our very modest means and our pen, we face the dominant powers of religious and political tyranny.
4- We are drawing nearer to the moment of our death; we still work within our website and shoot more videos despite our ailments and our pains. We still cling to our big dreams and many hopes; we wish we could manage to market and sell our screenplays so that we get money to hire professionals to help us establish more websites. We even proposed that potential buyers of our screenplays can put their names (or any pen-names) as authors instead of our own name. No one seemed to care to buy and produce them. We proposed that we can sell those screenplays which are enjoyable as period drama without the dimension of reform so that the money would help us continue the reform endeavors online and so that we would not request donations. No one seemed to care to buy and produce them. So far, we failed to sell and market any of the screenplays since 1989.
Lastly:
1- We will never apologize for pouring our thoughts in this article.
2- We have decided to pour our thoughts in this article as a witness against this rotten, corrupt era which we live in.
3- The Lord God is our Only Guardian and Helper; "...God is enough for us; He is the Excellent Protector." (3:173). As always, the Lord God says nothing but the Absolute Truth.