Alaa Aldin Alkhatib
10-10-2019
No one would imagine that the Inquisition could come back in the 21st century, but it looks as though it might. In previous decades, the rising Islamism stream used to suppress any idea that appeared to be heresy to them as Islamists. The main driver of the Catholic Inquisition was the claim to protect the people from heretical ideas and behaviors, using the power of the church and the power of the state when they could. Now the modern Islamist and anti-Islam Inquisitions are using the same arguments: We protect people.
Internet media platforms found their way to the Arabic countries, and many Youtubers began to attract wider audiences. The topics varied a lot – entertainment, music, politics, religions, science, comedy, etc. One famous Arab Youtuber is Al-Dahhih (Ahmad Ghandour) who published more than 140 of YouTube videos presenting a kind of simplified or pop science. As he presented many topics in a popular and simple way with a touch of comedy performance, his channel used to get a relatively high number of followers.
Last June, Al-Dahhih published a video about the role of incidence and probability in daily life, the financial market, and science. He discussed the multiverse theory, that our universe is one of an infinite number of universes, and how this has led our universe to have all the necessary conditions for our existence.
After the release of this video, it was as if he had opened a Pandora’s box; many Islamist Youtubers initiated a war against him and accused him of promoting atheism among Muslims by stating that the universe was created by coincidence, which means, in their view, that there is no creator.
Dr. Eyad Qunaibi, an associated professor at Pharmacy College in Jordan, was the most well-known Youtuber who accused Al-Dahhih of promoting atheism among Muslims. Dr. Qunaibi is known as an extreme supporter of Salafi Jihadism, anti-democracy, anti-West, and a known criticizer of evolution and M theory.
Dr. Haitham Talaat, an Egyptian Doctor of Medicine and Islamist Salafist youtuber, accused Al-Dahhih of the same. Dr. Talaat has been more active in criticizing other non-Islamist youtubers, two months ago he initiated a campaign against Ahmad Saad Zayed, an Egyptian historian and enlightening activist, and he named Zayed as “an atheist” in a direct accusation.
It is normal and necessary for people to have different opinions, beliefs, views, and ideas, and they should be able to argue, discuss, and debate. There are people who believe in a creator, in evolution, in M theory, or do not care.
The problem in Arab and Muslim countries is that most of these countries are ruled by dictatorships that would use the religion to strengthen their power, even in the countries claiming to be less religious like Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. Under such totalitarian regimes, the Islamic Fatwa constitutes that an apostate should be punished, or even killed. The Muslim scholars did not completely agree on whether and to what extent a Muslim (born as a Muslim or converted to Islam) would be accused of apostacy. However, most of them agreed that apostates should be killed if they continued to insist on maintaining the apostate belief. Nevertheless, Dr. Talaat published a You Tube video titled “The Punishment of the Apostate, The Danger of Arab Apostates and Atheists”, where he confirms the punishment of apostasy.
The Sudanese religious thinker Mahmoud Mohammed Taha was sentenced to death by the Sudanese court in 1985; he was sentenced for distributing pamphlets calling for an end to Sharia law in Sudan.
Professor Farag Foda (Egyptian writer) was assassinated in 1992 by an Islamist group in Egypt after being accused of blasphemy by a committee of clerics at al-Azhar, and his works were banned.
The Egyptian Nobel prize winner Najib Mahfouz was injured in an assassination attempt, paralyzing his right arm in 1994.
The Egyptian Qur’anic thinker, author, and academic Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was declared an apostate by Egyptian Sharia court, which led to death threats and his fleeing Egypt several weeks later. He later “quietly” returned to Egypt where he died.
Many others suffered difficult times, death threats, or prison because Islamic clerks found what they wrote or said to be against Islam.
The Islamists are not the only “faith guards” in the Middle East. Last month, there was a great condemnation from Christian churches in Lebanon, and a demand to ban “Mashrou’ Leila”, the Lebanese four-member indie rock band, from singing at the Byblos International Festival in Lebanon, so the organizers had to ban the show to avoid “bloodshed”.
Therefore, the question is not about having a different opinion about any topic; it is about the alliance between the religious totalitarian power and the political power who force many constraints on the freedom of faith, ideas, expression, and behavior under the threat of punishment.
On August 3rd, Youm7, one of the most visited online-newspapers in Egypt, which is known for having close ties to the Egyptian government, published a report with the title “Qatar Tries to Spread Atheism in Egypt .. Al-Dahhih Program Publishes Anomalous Ideas and Filmed from Cairo Sponsored by the Qatari Media”.
Al-Dahhih program is produced by AJ+, which is part of Aljazeera’s network. Nevertheless, the Qatari Aljazeera never stood for such freedom of speech. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian Islamic theologian, confirmed that apostate should be punished, or even killed. Al-Qaradawi is one of the most influential Islamic clerks among Sunni Muslims and has been presenting the Islamic program “Al Sharia and Life” on Aljazeera since 1996, where he justified the necessity of apostasy punishment.
On the other hand, there are groups and individuals who cannot be described as Islamophobic, but rather anti-Islam, and cannot be considered liberal or secular because they think that every Muslim is a possible terrorist. They also have their own TV and You Tube channels and correspond roughly to the extreme right streams in the West.
in 2017, in a YouTube video hosted by four anti-Islam figures, a Syrian American writer, Wafa Sultan, indirectly called on the West to nuke Muslim countries and demolish Makkah 20 km underground. She explained that she was not calling for the nuking of Muslims but would understand if the West had to do it. Is there someone in the West who may see this possibility? It appears that the rising extremism is not so far from those ideas against all who are not “white”.
Extreme nationalism, extreme Islamism, extreme racism, extreme white supremacy: It is not exactly the picture humanity imagined and hoped for the 21st century.
