Al-Sisi’s war on Islam

The current President of Egypt, Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi, the general who turned against the legitimately elected President, Dr Mohamed Morsi, has already called for a religious revolution and a new religious discourse. The revolution demanded by Al-Sisi is a revolution against Islam. He is working to get rid of the Arab Islamic identity of Egypt, so it was no real surprise that his so-called “justice minister”, a rogue called Ahmed Al-Zend, said that he will prosecute any journalist accused of spreading false news about him and his family and put him in prison, “even if he were the Prophet [Muhammad] himself, peace be upon him.” Al-Zend, who Twitter and Facebook users like to call “the atheist”, and are using this description in a hash-tag on social media sites, represents the situation of Egypt in the era of coup leader Al-Sisi.

The president accused Islam and Muslims of threatening all mankind in his speech on the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday: “We need a religious revolution,” he added. This was picked up by a group of people headed by journalist Ibrahim Eissa, actress Ilham Chahine, poet Fatima Naoot and an actress called Boosi, who said, “Those who said that Prophet Muhammad is the most honourable of people were wrong, as they haven’t met Al-Sisi.” Professor Saad Al-Din Hilali went so far as to describe Al-Sisi as a “messenger of God”, which is the same description he gave to former Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim. Another anchor on a pro-Sisi TV channel claimed that the president “was sent to complement morals”, which is something associated with Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. One woman at a conference once told Al-Sisi, “You are honest and trustworthy,” to which he replied, “I will try to be strong and honest.” The woman added, “…and the preserver and the all-knowing,” attributes given to the Prophets Muhammad, Moses and Joseph, peace be upon them. The biggest disaster, however, was when the pro-Sisi Al-Fajr newspaper said that “Al-Sisi meets God twice a day” in an obvious and blatant challenge to Islam and Islamic doctrine.

Justice Minister Al-Zend is only one of the rogues supported by Al-Sisi. “I will not rest until I kill 400,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood,” he insisted. “We are masters of this land, and others are the slaves.” If anyone burns a picture of a judge in a protest, he added, “We’ll burn his heart, his memories and even his image altogether, so he won’t contaminate Egypt.”

Al-Sisi insulted Islam and one and a half billion Muslims, accusing them of being hostile to all mankind. His followers, writer Adel Hammouda and Al-Hilali are insulting God, while Al-Zend has insulted the Prophet, peace be upon him, and is calling for mass murder. Ibrahim Eissa is insulting Islamic law, while Fatima Naoot considers the command of Allah Almighty to Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his only son Prophet Ismail to be “a nightmare”. Then academic Youssef Ziedan comes out to say that the miraculous Night Journey of the Prophet was fabricated, and that Al-Aqsa Mosque does not exist in Palestine. Officials at the ministry of education are picking up these signs and burning Islamic books to “cleanse” the curriculum from “violent Islam, jihad and hostility towards Jews.”

What is happening in Egypt is a war against Islam led by Al-Sisi personally, and Al-Zend is one of his foot-soldiers. It is a war on Egypt’s identity, history and faith. It is the real aim of the coup, which is to break Egypt apart culturally and religiously before it is broken-up geographically.

Translated from Arabi21, 15 March 2016.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.