An Unpublished Interview with the Daily Telegraph on the Occasion of the Catholic Pope Visiting Egypt

Published in April 28, 2017

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

  Only a small part of our answers is published in this article on the website of the Daily Telegraph, found on this link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/28/pope-francis-travels-egypt-amid-questions-islamic-universitys/

 Thus, we have decided to publish here, on our website, the entirety of the original questions sent to us, along with our answers to them that we have sent to the Daily Telegraph, (originally in Arabic).

Question: Could Al-Azhar institution in its current state be ready to adopt a call for peace?

Answer: Certainly not; Al-Azhar in its present state and current leadership heading it adopts and propagates the cursed religion of ISIS terrorists. Let us further explain this; when one understands ad ponders on the Quran as per its own terminology, one finds real Islam (i.e., Quranism) as the religion of justice for all, tolerance, human dignity, peace, and absolute religious freedom. The real Quranic sharia legislations of Islam is briefly mentioned in the Quranic Ten Commandments in the verses 6:151-153. Islam is a celestial religion with certain commands and prohibitions found exclusively in the Quranic text, whereas Muslims/Muhammadans are human beings with their own human history, civilization, heritage, traditions, and legislations that mostly contradict with the Quran (i.e., real Islam). Muhammadans in general have three earthly, man-made, fabricated religions that sprang as full-fledged religions, which have nothing to do with the Quran, two centuries after the death of Muhammad: the Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi religions, with each having its own sects, doctrines, and sub-creeds. The majority of the Muhammadans are Sufi Sunnites, as this mix between the Sunnite and Sufi religions dominates in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Singapore. Problems, troubles, and terrorism come usually from the Sunnite religion with its extremist, violent, fanatic ideology of bigotry and authoritarianism; in comprises four main doctrines, but the most violent and fanatic of them all is the Ibn Hanbal doctrine, the basis of current ideology of Wahabism. Wahabism in modern times has been established by the Ibn Hanbal doctrine follower and clergymen Muhammad Ibn Abdul-Wahab, who allied himself to the prince Muhammad Ibn Saud in the Najd region, in Arabia, to establish the very first Saudi state using Wahabism in 1745, and Wahabis under Saudi rulers committed many massacres in Arabia, the Levant, and Iraq, and when Wahabis and Saudis conquered the Hejaz region (where Mecca is located) that was ruled by Egypt at the time, the king of Egypt Muhammad Ali Pacha sent the Egyptian army and troops to destroy the first Saudi state in 1818. The second Saudi state was established decades later but collapsed soon enough. The third current Saudi state has been established by Abdul-Aziz Ibn Abdul-Rahman Al-Feisal Al-Saud in the period 1901-1932, and he was the father of all the Saudi kings of the KSA. When oil has been discovered in Arabia, the KSA allied itself to the West, especially the USA, and grow very rich; the KSA used its money and revenues to spread and propagate Wahabism, as though it were Islam, in the Arab world and also worldwide. King Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud was the founder of the terrorist MB group in Egypt that managed gradually within decades, along with other Wahabi agents loyal to the Saudi family, to change the Sufi Sunnite 'moderate' mode of religiousness of most Egyptians into Wahabism/Salafism, the ideology from which sprang all terrorist groups: Hamas, Hizb El-Tahrir, Jamaa Eslamiyya, jihadists, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS. When Saudi Wahabism has managed to dominate Egypt, it has controlled Al-Azhar fully since the Mubarak era. Within the presidential term of the current President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, Al-Azhar grows more powerful and more controlled by the KSA and loyal to the Saudi royal family to the extent that Al-Sisi cannot control it; head of Al-Azhar and powerful figures in it adamantly refuse to introduce reform to Azharite curricula as per recommendations of Al-Sisi. These curricula are the essence of the Wahabi religion which is the ideology and sharia of ISIS. That has been a very important introduction to answer this question; we ask you in return: does ISIS organization call for peace? If so, then Al-Azhar calls for peace!                    

Question: Do curricula of Al-Azhar University and Azharite schools help spread the culture of peace and tolerance?

Answer: Certainly not; let us first understand the difference between the Quranic sharia of Islam and the Wahabi Sunnite ISIS sharia. God says in the Quran: "There shall be no compulsion in religion..." (2:256); "And say, "The truth is from your Lord. Whoever wills-let him believe. And whoever wills-let him disbelieve"..." (18:29), and about Muhammad: "We did not send you except as mercy to humankind." (21:107). As for the Sunnite religion, Sunnites ascribe false narratives to Muhammad such as the following: (I'm commanded to fight all human beings until they testify that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet!); (Kill all those who change their religion!). Islam in terms of behavior is peaceful demeanor in dealing with all people, regardless of religious affiliation or even lack of it. Each individual is responsible for his/her religion and faith before the Almighty Lord on the Last Day. Polytheism and disbelief in terms of behavior is violence and aggression or the violation of peace, like Wahabi ISIS terrorists and their likes who massacre innocent people in the name of religion. Hence, all Copts, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, etc. are 'Muslims' in terms of peaceful behavior, as per the Quranic sharia legislations, whereas Wahabis who commit atrocities and massacres are disbelievers and polytheists. This is part of the vast difference between Islam (Quranism) and the earthly Sunnite religion in particular. This Sunnite Wahabi religion is the one taught in all Azharite schools and theological faculties at Al-Azhar University that teach hadiths, fiqh, etc. of the Sunnite sharia of ISIS, spread by Al-Azhar for decades suing Saudi money. Sunnites consider all non-Sunnites as infidels and heretics who must be fought; once Sunnites establish a theocracy anywhere or control a given country, they murder Shiites and Christians. Azharite curricula now consider Christian Copts as 'infidels' and second-class citizens as per the Sunnite notion of dhimmitude and consider that they have to pay annual tributes for their living in Egypt, and they must be despised and harmed! As for the rest of the world, Sunnite Wahabi sharia taught by Al-Azhar consider the world to be divided into two camps: the camp of peace and faith where Wahabis live, and the camp of war and disbelief, where Christians live in the West. Within such Satanist sharia, the camp of 'infidels' must be fought incessantly until the end of days and until the Last Day! This Wahabi Sunnite sharia of Satan is propagated by the KSA all over the EU and the USA within communities of the Muhammadans using thousands of mosques sponsored by the Saudi money. In these mosques, Azharite clergymen and Wahabi imams spread their venom. This is why ISIS organization manages to recruit some Muhammadan youths in the EU and the USA to commit terrorist operations to massacre the innocent ones indiscriminately and to become suicide bombers. In order to reform Al-Azhar, its curricula must be radically changed and revised; we call for this for decades until now, but in vain; all leaders of Al-Azhar still shamelessly teach the cursed religion of ISIS in Azharite curricula inside and outside Egypt. Thus, we pose this question: does ISIS organization propagate the culture of peace and tolerance? If so, then Al-Azhar institution propagates the culture of peace and tolerance!                 

Question: What is the influence of Azharite curricula on imams and preachers who graduated from Al-Azhar?

Answer: Let us remind readers that the terrorist leader of the Jamaa Eslamiyya fanatic terrorist group, Dr. Omar Abdel-Rahman, who recently died in a prison in the USA, was originally a professor at Al-Azhar University. The Egyptian President Al-Sisi suffered a lot from demonstrations of violence and sabotage of the Azharite students at Al-Azhar University. Most Azharite students are either terrorist MB members or members of Salafist groups. Salafists and MB members are two legs of the dangerous Wahabi religion spreading in Egypt like an epidemic, supported by all mosques and media in Egypt, as well as Egyptian laws that ban any discussions of Wahabism, on the pain of being sentenced to imprisonment terms when accused of showing contempt in public to the religion of 'Islam'. Some Quranists were incarcerated within such accusation for three- and five-year terms in 2001; this penalty is waiting for us if we ever return to Egypt. In fact, Wahabism cannot go on and dominate unless within the protection of the Egyptian regime and laws to it; if it had not been for the law against the so-called showing contempt of religion (issued to protect Wahabism from discussion), Wahabism will collapse easily and be refuted once put to question using the Quran as the criterion to judge it. Thus, the Egyptian regime guards Wahabism and allows Azharite preachers spread religious extremism and fanaticism inside and outside Egypt, as Azharite curricula studies by graduates makes terrorism appear as if obligatory religious duty or jihad. Let us be reminded that Al-Azhar expanded widely all over Egyptian soil in a systematic way; in the 1930s, Al-Azhar University had but three faculties in Cairo and two secondary-stage institutes in Tanta and Cairo, but during the era of Sadat (1971 - 1981), and until now, Al-Azhar University had branches all over Egyptian governorates as well as thousands of preparatory- and secondary-stage schools all over Egyptian cities and villages. This led to the destruction of the Egyptian mentality and collective mind/memory by saturating it with Wahabi ideology. Thus, Egypt lost its liberal-mindedness, in terms of religious life, that used to exist in the period 1860 – 1971, before Al-Azhar expanded all over Egyptian soil.

Question: Do Azharite curricula help spread freedom of thought, expression, and religion as well as rights of women and minorities?

Answer: Certainly not; we ourselves have been persecuted by Al-Azhar for three years (1977 - 1980) because of our PhD thesis that criticizes and refutes Sunnite Sufism by comparing them to the Quran. Al-Azhar persecuted us one more time for two years (1985 - 1987) because we have authored five books that criticize and refutes Sunnite notions and tenets. Eventually, we have been fired from Al-Azhar University in March 1987, and we have been incarcerated along with some of our fellow Quranists toward the end of 1987. The Egyptian State Security Apparatus men called us for the first time as ''Quranists'' and called our trend of reform as ''Quranism''. We like this appellations and have decided to adopt them. Within Saudi and Azharite influence, the second wave of arrest against Quranists began in 2000 – 2001, but we managed to seek and obtain political asylum in the USA. Arrest waves went on in 2007 and 2009 by the Mubarak regime, especially to incarcerate our extended family members, as a way to punish us, and the head of Al-Azhar at the time, Dr. M. Sayed Tantawi, seemed to desire to take revenge against us. The fourth arrest wave of Quranists among our family members in Egypt was in 2014 within Al-Sisi regime and the head of Al-Azhar Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayyib. All this persecution because of our peaceful intellectual war of ideas against Wahabism and Wahabis using the Quran within our website ahl-alquran.com and our IQC near Washington, in VA, the USA. We are an expert in the intellectual war of ideas against ISIS organizations and its likes. When we were a visiting professor at Woodrow Wilson Center, we have submitted this research titled "Rules of Engagement in War of Ideas against Jihadists" found in English on our website:                        

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=76

We assert from within the Quranic verses that there is no penalty exacted from people by other people for rejecting Islam; we refer you to our book "Penalty for Apostasy between Islam and Sunnite Jurisprudence", found in English on this link:

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=91

and our book in English titled "Hisbah: A Historical Overview: Defending Dr. Nasr Abou Zeid" found on this link:

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=99

When we worked at the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom) as a visiting professor, we have submitted a research asserting the absolute religious freedom in the Quran (real Islam: Quranism) in contrast to Wahabism, and this research (in English) titled "Religious Freedom between Islam and Fanatic Muslims" is found on the following link:

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=75

We have defended women's rights as equal to men within our book (in English) titled "Women's Right to Aspire to the Presidency of Any Islamic State", found on this link:

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=79

We have proved how persecution of Christian Copts contradicts the Quran, in our book (in English) titled "The Persecution of Copts after the Arab Conquest", found on the following link:

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=95

We refer readers as well to our archive of thousands of English articles and fatwas that constitute vital material to the intellectual war of ideas against Sunnite/Wahabi terrorism, found on this link:

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/profile.php?main_id=1

  Within all our writings, we use the Quran as the sole criterion to judge and refute Sunnite sharia legislations that contradicts the Quran and urge Sunnites to disbelieve in God's Word; this is why the KSA and Al-Azhar do their best and use their influence and authority to persecute Quranists in Egypt and elsewhere and impose media blackout on Quranists as much as they can, so as to prevent our peaceful reformist call of enlightenment from ever reaching Muslim masses.  

Question: Al-Azhar leadership claims to represent moderate Islam; is this true?

Answer: Certainly not; Azharite clergy are Wahabi fanatic extremists and ISIS-like bigots.

Question: What is the role played by Al-Azhar in the Islamic world?

Answer: Its role is to spread Wahabism and the culture of ISIS like indiscriminate jihad killings, terrorist operations, and massacres committed against the innocent people.

Question: What is the link between Azharite curricula and Islamist  extremism and fundamentalism?

Answer: First of all, we disagree with you in using the erroneous terms such as 'Islamist', 'Islamism', 'Islamist ' movements/groups, 'Muslim' Brothers, etc. as these wrong terms propagated by media worldwide help support the big lie of terrorists that they represent Islam. In fact, they enemies of Islam and represent and embody Wahabism, the man-made religion that contradicts Islam (i.e., Quranism). As per the Quran, there is not even a single human being – including Muhammad himself –  that may represent Islam. Islam is a religion with its own commands and prohibitions embodied only and exclusively by the Quran. Prophet Muhammad was a mortal human being who sued to make mistakes and repent, and he will be judged on the Last Day like the rest of human being. If Muhammad were to represent Islam, he would not be judged in the Hereafter; but he will, as per many Quranic verses. It is very dangerous to ascribe deeds and crimes of Wahabi terrorists to Islam, as this justifies their atrocities and reinforce the stance that those who attack and criticize them are undermining Islam, and such sentiments would make them heroes in the eyes of the masses of Muhammadans. Thus, terrorists must never be described as Islamists, but to be described with their true adjective: Wahabis. Secondly, Azharite curricula have nothing to do with Quranic tolerance; they are seeped with extremist fanatical notions inciting violence and violating human rights, typical of Sunnite Wahabi religion of ISIS. 

Question: There are trends in Egypt calling for reforming religious discourse or introducing religious reform in general within Islam;  what impedes Al-Azhar to introduce the urgently required reform?

Answer: Reforming Al-Azhar requires political and legislative reform that will help establish a real democratic state; tyrannical regimes need religious institutions under their control to control citizens. Al-Azhar is the most ancient religious institution in Egypt and throughout the countries of the Muhammadans; it was established in 972 A.D., and it is still in control of religious life of most Egyptians, apart from its great influence all over the Sunnite/Sufi world (about one billion person). It is extremely difficult now to modernize Al-Azhar because people in charge of it are hypocritical ignoramuses; they know nothing but to flatter strong rulers and to dominate weak rulers. The head of Al-Azhar Muhammad Abdou (1849 - 1905) is the pioneer leader of religious reform in Egypt and the Arab world, and he calls people in his writings to return to the Quran as the only source of Islam; the true Islam of Muhammad before civil wars among Arabs occurred after Muhammad's death. M. Abdou denied all Sunna and hadiths and considered them as mere narratives reflecting minds of their authors and have nothing to do with faith. M. Abdou expressed his view about Azharite curricula (which are still the same, by the way, until now!) that they are barriers preventing the Light of the Quran and the cause of backwardness of the Umma (i.e., Muslim nations), and we must regain the spirit of the era of Muhammad, who had no books but the Quran. The disciple of M. Abdou was the Levantine sheikh Rasheed Reda who settled in Egypt, but he was a traitor who betrayed reform movement of M. Abdou and allied himself to Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud and Wahabism; Reda propagated Wahabism in Egypt under a new name: Salafism. Reda was the real founder of the terrorist Wahabi group MB with his disciple Hassan Al-Banna. We are serializing now on our website installments of a new book titled "The Establishment and Development of the Earthly Religions of the Muhammadans", where we discuss the role of Reda in Egypt and the Arab world in one chapter of this book. Indeed, the emergence of Quranists who write articles on our website has caused positive reactions: many Egyptians now reject and revolt against the Wahabi dominance over Egypt in general and over Al-Azhar in particular. Quranists suffer lack of financial means, media blackout, and persecution. We personally submitted to the Ibn Khaldoun Center, in Cairo, where we used to work, a project to reform Egyptian education to make it urge tolerance with Copts, and the Center adopted the project and media talked about it at the time, but in vain. Part of this project was the steps required to reform Al-Azhar and Azharite curricula, and you can read further details about his topic in the following list of our books (in English):                 

"The Seven Principles of the Real Islamic Sharia and How to Apply Them"

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=80

"A Witness of the Earliest Months of The Presidential Term of The Egyptian President Al-Sisi"

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=77

"The Cursed Religion of ISIS"

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=73