CAA International Coptic Conference 2007
First – Introduction: There are realities to begin with, and from it we will have:
1. We are not against the Muslim Brothers as individuals or as a political group; we are against their religious culture that contradicts with Islam, human rights, and the rights of citizenship. We are against their political agenda in using religion for their political ambitions.
2. When we say that the culture of the Muslim Brotherhood, we mean the Wahhabi belief and its Sharia, which contradicts with Islam and its high grounds and laws. We proved that Wahhabism is a religious authority for the Muslim Brotherhood, even with the current political differences between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi Wahhabi regime.
3. When we call the culture of the Muslim Brotherhood, we do not mean the Muslim Brotherhood only, but we mean the entire Sunni Wahhabi culture, which counts on the incorrect sayings that are falsely attributed to the prophet –ahadeeth- which contradicts the Quran and initiates terror in the name of Islam. Sadat allowed this education, this culture, to domination the media and education in Al-Azhar, mosques, and the Egyptian street in the name of Islam. It became that whoever discussed this culture in the life of Islam and the Quran became accused of religious deriding, as what happened to us the Quranists. This Muslim Brotherhood culture is a threat to both Egypt and to the silent majority of thinkers and intellectuals, secularists, Bahais, and Shiias of the Egyptians….
Second – Defining the Problem
This Muslim Brotherhood Wahhabi ideology that dominates is no longer the only threat right now because it produced 3 other kinds of fanatic trends:
1. The national fanatic trend that mixes the Arab nationalism and Egyptian loyalty with religious paranoia and the chronic hostility to the US and the Copts. El Esbooa newspaper leads this way, along with Elshaad newspaper (read the first supplement article in El Esbooa newspaper).
2. The trend of independent youth who hate the Copts and hate any religious jurisprudence within Islam. They were brought up on that education of bad information and bad mentality that led them to believe that the West and their agent conspire against Egypt and Islam, and since they think that the problems comes from the outside –as they believe- then the inside –Egypt and Islam- needs no reform. The agents of the West t are the Quranists and the Copts of Diaspora (read the 2nd supplement of article in the Arab times).
3. A trend of fanatic Christianity in varying degrees and tones.
a. The most fanatic variation is the trend that attacks Islam itself as a religion, and they do not refrain from attacking the modern Muslim Quranists themselves, because those fanatics carry hate towards Islam.
b. The trend that supports the Muslim atheists, who keep insulting in Islam while ignoring the victims of the Egyptian regime in the modern Muslim Quranists, who defend the Copts and others from inside Islam. This trend supported Abel Karrem Sulieman, and did not move to defend the Quranists who have been tortured by the state security. While the most torture suffered by Said Abdel Latif in the state security building in Shubra, AlKheima which lasted 37 days took the view in his last article of this Coptic who converted to Islam to reconcile his faith after divorcing his wife.
c. There is another trend which is that he is well involved with sectarianism that only sees the suffering of the Copts alone, and ignores the suffering of their fellow Muslim Egyptians. The best example of this is the two martyrs who died both carrying the same name: Nasser. Both are victims of police torture, but one was Copt and the other was Muslim. The Copts United website, however, made flagrant propaganda about the Coptic victim and ignored the Muslim victim.
Note: there is no need for supplements because the issue is very clear.
Third – Treatment
1. This mix of extremist and fanatical ways came as a result of the spread of the Wahabi ideology that is promoted by the media. This mix of the extremist and fanatical trends will not reduce but would bear only fruits of damage of Egypt and the Copts will pay the price before the Muslims.
The treatment is only by facing this way in their homes. There must be a peaceful confrontation within Islam to the culture of extremist Wahabi and the Muslim Brotherhood that poisons the climate of Egypt. The Wahabian Muslim Brotherhood extremism drives its strengths from being related to Islam. It is like the bomb that cannot detonate. If you stripped it from the trigger, it becomes like a child’s toy. That is what the Wahabi Muslim Brotherhood ideology is – if we prove that it contradicts with Islam, it will fail in the end. This is what the Quranists have been doing since 30 years ago with their own powers, efforts, and finances. For that, they have been exposed to three waves of terrorism in 1957, 2000/2001, and 2007.
2. The influence of the Muslim Brothers grew in Egypt to the extent that they hired some of the Christian leaders while the Copts of Diaspora ignored or left their biggest weapon against the Muslim Brotherhood and Wahabism, which is the International Quranic Center.
3. The Copts’ efforts in the past have been just to protest, and these efforts resulted in the whole world’s acknowledgement of the Coptic problem. Now, we must enter a new phase of affirmative action to isolate the Muslim Brotherhood and eliminate their culture. This Islamic task is only carried with Muslims alone.
4. Neither the US nor the Copts can treat the extremist problem within the Muslims. The problem lies in the Muslims, that is why the treatment has to be directed towards the Muslims and using the weapon of Islam itself. This is the specialty of the International Quranic Center, and its efforts on behalf of the history of the people who are responsible for it. The Muslim Brotherhood, or Al-Azhar, or Wahabi, cannot doubt the Islamic belief of the International Quranic Center or its specialty of its leader’s knowledge of Islam. From here, if you alienate from the Quranic center, it will be the biggest stab you can give to the extremist Wahabis, Muslim Brothers, and Saudis. From the American experience in Iraq, the outside military inference results in the destruction of the nation and its citizens. As a result of the American failure in Iraq, they cannot leave, but at the same time they are not progressing – yet they keep paying the bill of blood and money. Therefore, it is impossible to apply the same mistake in Egypt. The peaceful and political correction will only come through Islam and the Muslims who are loyal to their religion and their nation.
5. I do not exaggerate when I say there is no confrontation except through our way. We are Muslims who are eager and care for our Islam, we did not get weak or surrender. For 30 years, we stood alone, and we succeeded despite discrimination and the limit of sources in achieving through change and the Muslim religious culture. With our efforts, we exposed extreme ideology, the sayings of Al Bokhary, and the extremist sectarian fatwas. If it wasn’t for us, this ideology would be dominating until now, as it was for 12 centuries. We exposed the hidden, and what was silenced from the holy Sunni culture. We are the ones who debated it with respect to the Quran, so we created a terrible shock – not only to the silent majority who did not read this heritage and culture, but also for the scientists of this culture who carry it on their backs without daring to read or debate it. We are the first ones to read the Holy Quran in a neutral interpretation according to its objectives, understandings, terminologies, and concepts. We refer to it in the debate against the Wahabi Muslim Brotherhood extremism, and we proved the contradictions between the two. These contradictions have no treatment except by the extremist Muslim Brotherhood to give up and come back to the principles of human rights and citizenship, and give up all that contradicts with their culture. What the Quranists did during the past 30 years, from the religious efforts did not happen in the history of Muslim ideology throughout its 14 Centuries. I say this as an Islamic historical thinker, and I challenge anyone to debate it. The biggest evidence of our overwhelming success is that the extremists were defeated in front of us even with all their institutes, universities, Imams, preachers, the public, and their followers. Their herd saw and read the media, and saw their public and secretive organizations. They were defeated, and they didn’t dare to face us with logic, which is why they went to use power through arrests, prisons, torture, accusations of being agents, and fatwas of apostasy granting the right for us to be murdered. With that, they recorded on themselves shame and defeat. Every time we are growing in number, and many of the educated Muslims join us. Because we stand-alone, we couldn’t until now hold a conference for all Quranists from all around the world, and we couldn’t until now carry out one of our correction projects for the same reasons, which is the polarization between the extremists and the secularists.
The assignment of the Copts, atheist Muslims, and the Americans to the secularists ignored the Quranists. Through this, the Quranists became a victim from the both sides, from the discrimination by the extreme Wahabi Muslim Brothers and the Egyptian regime from one side and the neglection from the secularists, Copts, and Americans from the other side. Sooner or later, the Copts will be the beginning of the victims unless they cooperate with the Quranists and their peaceful ideology and struggle for correction. This is the treatment….but it is refused by most of the Copts!!
Fourth – The Problem of this Treatment
The problem is that this treatment does not interest most Copts, because most of them are still victims of the Wahabi extremist ideology. Some of the fanatics Copts reject any confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood that would result in clearing Islam from the charges of extremism and terrorism. Here, we enter the most important future of this problem, which is that the biggest victory for the Muslim Brotherhood has been given to them by the Copts.
Fifth – The Coptic Conferences and the Crying Wall
1. In facing the culture of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Copts reactive situation has been only protesting in conferences that have been held outside in Egypt, which only result in further sectarian tension in Egypt. However, to the extent that some use the conferences to attack the people who call for reform in order to get more prestige or power. This has pushed some Copts inside Egypt to become more and more isolated, and even to protest the actions of the Copts of Diaspora and wash their hands from them to stay safe.
2. I have attended 2 Coptic conferences before, one was in Washington and one was in New Jersey. I did not participate in the screaming and crying, or the ceremonies of shouting and protesting – but rather I presented plans of corrections and reforms and published this on our website, Ahl-Quran. Like in my paper “They ask you about the Muslim Brotherhood – Who Are They? How do we Face Them?” which I published after the conference in our website, ……. This I stated the nature of the Muslim Brotherhood movement from its roots, to its political culture and religious manifestations. I stated how we could face it scientifically, culturally, politically, and through the media. I even cleared the warnings of facing this, so that it stays a peaceful ideology within the Muslims themselves. I waited for one of the Copts to move to adopt these practical steps in coordination with the International Quranic Center, but I did not find anyone.
3. I published a book in our website which analyzes the movement of the Muslim Brotherhood’s religious and political movement, its roots of violence, and its roots in Wahabism. I announced an ideological project to publish all my writings free on our website as a step towards enlightenment to face the Muslim Brotherhood extremist ideology, but no one paid attention to us except the Egyptian state security agency, which arrested my brother Abdel Latif and his companions. They tortured them because they were recopying my books to be published on the internet. No Coptic voices were heard to defend the weak Quranists, except the article of Mr. Cameel Halim.
4. I presented to the leaders of the Copts of Diaspora the project “Islamization of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” which means that we hold an Islamic conference to study the declarations of human rights issued by the United Nations, and we prove its conformity with the principles of Sharia. We called to apply these international declarations in the Egyptian constitution, instead of the 2nd article of the Egyptian constitution, which causes controversy. This is very important to the Copts, but they refused the project.
5. There are many other projects to reform and correct the Egyptian culture, to clear it from the Wahabi ideology and I mentioned some of them before and have now added more to it. For example, the projects “Educating the Coptic era to the Muslim Youth,” and “Reform and Correct the Egyptian Punishment Law to Conform with the Reality of Islam on the Culture of Human Rights,” and “The Freedom of Religion and Worship and Building of Churches Without Conditions in Accordance with the Law of Islam,” the project which would bring friendship between Muslims and Christians in the villages and urban slums under the title of “My Coptic Neighbor,” the TV channel to lay the foundation of the culture of citizenship, instead of the culture of extremist Wahabi and Coptic fanatics, a network of internet sites to promote a positive co-existence between Muslims and Copts, and to manage a healthy dialogue regarding what the Egyptian Muslims and the Egyptian Christians agree on: human rights and the rights of citizenship, the value of tolerance, peace, patience, compassion, generosity, freedom of thoughts and belief, the freedom to practice religion for every human being, and to be loyal to their nation, democracy, justice, equality, honoring the woman and look after her, transparency in the fight against slavery, tyranny, and corruption……until now, so far, there has been no response. But holding more conferences - to have the crying wall where we can weep and complain – without practical and realistic solutions that will peacefully change the reality for the better.
6. If a traveler found himself at the base of a strong, big mountain which blocks the road, this traveler has 3 choices: go back, gain strength and using all resources to succeed to go past the mountain, or to sit and cry at the crying wall and cry for help…..crying is what the Copts are doing until now: weeping in front of the crying wall, until the country is lost, and the whole nation has become the crying wall.
7. If this conference does not result in the adoption of practical plans for the peaceful reform and correction for the reality in Egypt, I will not attend any more conferences where the Copts will weep over the ruins of what is done. There are no longer tears in the eyes.