About The Incarceration of the TikTok Young Women in Egypt – PART I: From the Quranist Viewpoint

Published in August 11, 2020

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

1- The much-admired TikTok video-sharing social networking service is used now by millions of people worldwide; the Egyptians are no exception to this rule. This is normal and ordinary; yet, since Egypt is still occupied by the Egyptian military armed forced and suffers a totalitarian military rule, news came about the arrest and incarceration of some Egyptian pretty young women who posted their videos via TikTok; the accusations hastily leveled against them before their imprisonment are urging fornication, violating Egyptian society values and the values of the Egyptian family, and shocking the prudish, conservative people or attentat à la pudeur; i.e., violating rules of modesty.    

2- As expected, this caused a furor and a controversy all over Egypt and elsewhere; this was intentional we assume; this is intended as a (red herring) to distract the Egyptian masses. The poor young women who used TikTok were never warned; they never knew that uploading their videos and photos would make them end up in jail. The military regime in Egypt never issued laws to war against publishing/posting videos or photos (even with revealing clothes) on TikTok. This means that the military-rule generals ambushed such poor, hapless, innocent young women and speedily had them arrested and incarcerated in order to achieve a political goal; i.e., a red herring to distract the Egyptian masses and to test loyalty of some others who unconditionally support the current regime. The masses in Egypt are distracted now by this topic so that they would not think of the crises and dangers which Egypt failed to face: the Ethiopian dam, the ISIS terrorists in North Sinai, and defending the Egyptian-Libyan borders. We have no doubt that the military regime will think of other similar red herrings in the near future when the topic of the TikTok young women would fade away; such red herrings serve to distract and divert the Egyptian people so that they would not think of how the military regime is such a failure and how it makes Egypt sinks lower into a quagmire and imminent collapse.   

3- As a reformist Quranist writer, we seldom write comments about recent events to condemn and or support in a vociferous voice; rather, we wait until the dust would settle down and then we write our own Quranist analysis.  

4- In this article and the next one, we talk about the topic of the incarceration of the TikTok young women in Egypt in relation to a Quranist viewpoint and then a political viewpoint. Our Quranist analysis is found below in a question-and-answer format to make things easier for our readers.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:

QUESTION: Is there in the Holy Quran (i.e., Quranism or the Only True Islam) a penalty for urging fornication or promiscuity?

ANSWER: No.

QUESTION: Is there in the Holy Quran a penalty for shocking prudish people and violating the Egyptian society values or the Egyptian family values?

ANSWER: No. Of course, the Quranic text tells us about the features of the Egyptian regimes during the eras of both Joseph and Moses. Despite Moses' Pharaoh's tyranny, cruelty, and self-deification, the Quran does not mention that he inflicted any harm on the women of Egypt; he even never punished/imprisoned his wife who believed with Moses in the Lord God; his wife is among the examples of excellent faith alongside with Mary in 66:11-12. Moses' Pharaoh even spare the women/girls of the Israelites and he never harmed them. Moses' Pharaoh resorted to no legal pretexts to 'justify' his tyranny and self-deification though he had means of torture and prisons; he never used them with women. Of course, there were prisons also in Egypt during the era of Joseph; prisons in the Quranic stories are never mentioned elsewhere except in relation to the millennia-old Egypt. The current Egyptian tyrant/pharaoh wreaks revenge against Egyptian women, we think. More details about this will be mentioned later on, but he uses vague words and laws to imprison anyone whimsically – including (young) women.  

QUESTION: What are the Quranic proofs that there is no penalty in Islam for those who urge promiscuity or fornication?

ANSWER: The penalty against those who love to spread promiscuity or fornication among believers in any given society is exacted only by the Omniscient Lord God Himself, Who knows what is inside all human souls, in this world and in the Hereafter: "Those who love to see immorality spread among the believers - for them is a painful punishment, in this life and in the Hereafter. God knows, and you do not know." (24:19). Hence, no human beings should punish others for this sin; they never know; the Lord God is the Only One Who knows who love spreading this sin. Of course, the verse 24:19 descended within the Yathreb society led by Muhammad and not within a military regime of tyranny.

QUESTION: What if those who love to spread fornication/immorality in their societies did so by words/calls and actions? Would they be punished by the regime? 

ANSWER: No; the Quran does not include a punishment (exacted by human beings on others) for such a type of sins; this means the Lord God is the Only One to punish such sinners in this world and/or the next one; this is also inferred from 24:19. This is about their torment inside Hell: "But as for those who transgressed/sinned, their shelter is the Fire..." (32:20); their torment in this world aims at making them repent before they die: "We will make them taste the lesser torment, prior to the greater torment, so that they may return." (32:21). Of course, any torment inflicted on them in this world is easier and of less duration than the torment for eternity in Hell. The penalties mentioned in the Quranic sharia legislations (whose pains are limited and of short duration) are better than the torment inflicted by the Lord God in this world on the sinners which may include a serious, painful illness of long duration until the sinners die.    

QUESTION: Is there a penalty in the Quran applied by human beings on sinners who are pimps controlling female sex workers?

ANSWER: Not at all. In Arabia and in Yathreb during Muhammad's lifetime, some men forced their women or their female slaves to become sex workers: the Lord God will forgive such women: "...And do not compel your girls to prostitution, seeking the materials of this life, if they desire to remain chaste. Should anyone compel them - after their compulsion, God is Forgiving and Merciful." (24:33). Yet, there is no penalty mentioned in 24:33 about such men who forced such girls to become sex workers. By the way, in the Quranic Chapter 24, the penalty for (fe)male fornicators is flogging for a number of times and NEVER stoning to death. The Quranic Chapter 24 tells us also about the penalty exacted by people on sinners who slander chaste women by accusing them of fornication without proofs. Yet, no penalties are mentioned in the entirety of the Quranic text about pimps or owners of houses of ill-repute. The Quranic revelation ends here: "...Today I have perfected your religion for you, and have completed My favor upon you, and have approved Islam as a religion for you..." (5:3). No one is to add religious legislations to the ones mentioned in the Holy Quran.

QUESTION: Does the ruling regime/authority have a right to punish the TikTok young women who uploaded/shared videos and photos of themselves in revealing clothes under the pretext of urging fornication or promiscuity?

ANSWER: No. They have not committed fornication; by the way, even fornicators who confessed or others have proofs about their sin can escape being flogged when they repent in public. This is because corporal penalties in the Islamic/Quranic sharia aim at deterrence and not at taking revenge. Even slanderers may be spared being flogged if they repented in public: "The female fornicator and the male fornicator - whip each one of them a hundred lashes...Those who accuse chaste women, then cannot bring four witnesses, whip them eighty lashes, and do not ever accept their testimony. For these are the immoral. Except for those who repent afterwards, and reform; for God is Forgiving and Merciful." (24:2-5). There is no corporal penalty for female sex workers never caught red-handed; their punishment is to be confined at their homes until they repent or until they die. The Lord God says the following in the Holy Quran: "Those of your women who commit lewdness, you must have four witnesses against them, from among you. If they testify, confine them to the homes until death claims them, or God makes a way for them. " (4:15). These Quranic verses do NOT apply to the TikTok Egyptian young women.

QUESTION: Do they deserve to be punished by the regime for their photos and videos of themselves, dressed in revealing clothes, shared via the internet?

ANSWER: No. The Lord God prohibits things/steps driving one to fornication: "And do not come near fornication. It is immoral, and an evil way." (17:32); yet, no penalties are mentioned in the Quranic sharia legislations for such things/acts/steps leading to fornication since they are small sins/mishaps/lapses/mistakes made by almost everyone even the pious ones who avoid grave sins and will enter into Paradise: "To God belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth. He will repay those who do evil according to their deeds, and recompense those who do good with the best. Those who avoid gross sins and indecencies - except for minor lapses - your Lord is of Vast Forgiveness. He knows you well, ever since He created you from the earth, and ever since you were embryos in your mothers’ wombs. So do not acclaim your own virtue; He is fully aware of the righteous ones." (53:31-32); "If you avoid the worst of what you are forbidden, We will remit your sins, and admit you by a Gate of Honor." (4:31). 

QUESTION: What about the revealing clothes and lustful looks in the videos of the TikTok Egyptian young women?!

ANSWER: The Lord God commands women and men in 24:30-31 to restrain their lustful looks and commands women to wear modest/decent clothes (i.e., not revealing legs and chest/breasts); yet, there are no Quranic penalties (i.e., applied by human beings on others) for violating these Quranic commands in the Quranic context 24:30-31, and this context urges believers to repent; that is all.

QUESTION: But the Quran tells us that slanderers should be penalized; some men slandered such young women of the TikTok, right?

ANSWER: Such men deserve 80 whips by flog and they lose their status/stature unless they repent: "Those who accuse chaste women, then cannot bring four witnesses, whip them eighty lashes, and do not ever accept their testimony. For these are the immoral. Except for those who repent afterwards, and reform; for God is Forgiving and Merciful." (24:4-5). In case they die without repentance, the Lord God will torment them in Hell: "Those who slander honorable, innocent, believing women are cursed in this life and in the Hereafter. They will have a terrible torment. On the Day when their tongues, and their hands, and their feet will testify against them regarding what they used to do. On that Day, God will pay them their account in full, and they will know that God is the Evident Reality. Bad women are for bad men, and bad men are for bad women, and good women are for good men, and good men are for good women. Those are acquitted of what they say. There is forgiveness for them, and a generous provision." (24:23-26)

QUESTION: What about framing innocent people?

ANSWER: It is the worst sin/crime in the levels of sins: "Whoever commits evil, or wrongs his soul, then implores God for forgiveness, will find God Forgiving and Merciful. And Whoever earns a sin, earns it against himself. God is Aware and Wise. And whoever commits a mistake, or a sin, and then blames it on an innocent person, has taken a slander and a clear sin." (4:110-112).

QUESTION: After such Quranist explanation, what is your Quranist vision of today's Egypt and what occurs in it?

ANSWER: We regret to say that Egypt's tyrannical pharaoh controls its land and its inhabitants/citizens and he is being helped by the military generals and deep-state men; news came that he tortures, imprisons, and kills innocent people and that he smuggles billions of US$; this means he launches a war with his military troops against the armless Egyptian people; this means all Egyptians are his victims especially Egyptian women; if this is not the case, it will be very soon. Hence, the topic or red herring of the TikTok young women who are now imprisoned is part of injustices spread in Egypt since the 1952 coup. The one who murdered an innocent soul deserves Hell for eternity; yet, what about someone who murdered hundreds of thousands? The Lord God says the following in the Holy Quran: "Whoever kills a believer deliberately, the penalty for him is Hell, where he will remain forever. And God will be angry with him, and will curse him, and will prepare for him a terrible torment." (4:93).

QUESTION: This is the last question: Why has not the head-sheikh or 'grand' imam of Al-Azhar, Dr. Al-Tayyib, quoted the Quranic verses, which you have mentioned earlier, to President Al-Sisi?

ANSWER: Because Dr. Al-Tayyib disbelieves in the Quran and he heads the clergymen loyal to, and ridden/controlled by, Al-Sisi; the Lord God will torment them in this world and in the Hereafter. We urge readers to read our book titled (The Big Criminals Who Are Tyrants and Clergymen in the Planet of the Muhammadans).