Finally Dr. Essam el-Erian is to be released, after he was detained during the pro-democracy demos last May.
Dr. Essam is someone I and many other secularists have so much appreciation for. He is a respectable citizen and a principled politician who should not have been taken away from his family and work, for demonstrating in support of Egypt’s judiciary, and thrown to the Tora dungeons.
Dr. Essam is one of the main forces in the Muslim Brotherhood that has been pushing the group towards moderation and endorsing democracy as the means to governance. The regular crackdowns the govt conducts against him and his colleagues only serves the cause of extremism and strengthens salafi factions in the group. I’m glad he is getting out.
Mabrouk ya doctor!
Hossam… are you using Salafi as synonymous with “evil” or what?
No, Cosmic, salafi is not automatically synonymous with evil. Several relatives of mine, including two young cousins in the beginning of their 20s, are salafis, and I saw no \”evil\” in their beliefs, and I saw no bloody reason for State Security police (led by Lt. Col. Hisham Tawfeeq of the Nasr City State Security Office) detaining them last year to subject them to a long night of electric shocks in Lazoughli. Some salafis, though, I have problems with, and may be I can post something longer on that in the future.
\”serves the cause of extremism AND strengthens salafi factions in the group\”.. These are two seperate points. Rounding up moderates like Dr Essam, who want to express their views peacefully could tempt some (Islamists or not) to carry up arms against the govt, and then you get the 1990s episode again. The second point, is strengthening the salafi faction in the MB, which something I\’m not excited about. I don\’t put all salafis in one basket, and I know there are MANY streams of salafi thought, some does not necessarily constitute a threat to freedom of expression and thought. However, in general, I would not like to see that faction strengthened in the MB on the expense of people like Essam and co. Essam presents a generation in the group that wants to talk politics, reach out to other political tendencies and seriously revise the MB stands on many issues of civil liberties. He should be applauded for that. He\’s someone who favors coordinating with secularists and other non-Islamist political forces. He\’s indeed inspiring. On the other hand, the salafis who hang out within the Brotherhood or outside are usually more interested in preaching \”morals,\” and wasting our time in minute intrusive personal issues, like how should men and women dress, is it halal to eat with your right or left hand, bla bla bla. You talk with one in politics, with a ciggarette in hand, and then the whole conversation changes to smoking whether it\’s halal or haram… well, smoking is bad for the health, but I\’d rather focus more on how to close down the torture chambers, and win our freedom for assembling, associating, demonstrating, etc..
Other salafis I came accross like those in my extended family, I have to say, are actually charming. Yes, they are EXTREMELY religious, but they mind their own business, and never intervene in the personal affairs of the rest of the family members. None of them ever told my unveiled mother a bad word, and none of them beat their kids or wives as the stereotypes go. Family gatherings are always hillarious, with secularists and religious cousins trading jokes about all sorts of things you can imagine, and they don\’t open the question of religion unless you ask them to.
Salafis who wanna preach their own ideas should be allowed to do so. This doesn\’t mean I agree with what they say. But, I\’d rather engage in polemics against them outside prison walls, than inside some torture chamber where electric shocks makes no distinction between leftists\’ balls and those of the salafis\’.
I would add to Hossam’s comments above that Salafist thinking has changed drastically over the past century, going from the moderate reform effort led by the likes of Sheikh Mohammed Abdou to the xenophobic writings of Sayyid Qutb. The contemporary Salafist movement is nothing much to look at: unlike Sheikh Abdou, it tends to be obscurantist, ultra-conservative and in some cases violent.
I think there is a second way to interpret “salafi,” though, which is the original sense of looking back to the examples set by the prophet and his companions. The salafi movement started out as just that — a group of Muslims who sought to revive Islam by going back to the principles of the early Muslims. But, partly because of its radicalization by the Islamist fight against colonial rule and secular regimes, it has drifted considerably rightwards.
I thank you both for taking the time to offer an explanation. I have my disagreements of course, but I appreciate the willingness to talk constructively. Yes, the actual meaning of Salafi is a reference to first generations of Islam. I wouldn’t describe the current form as obscurantist though; it can be very broad in scope and rich in detail; nor would I leap to describe Qutb, radical and militant as he was, as xenophobic.
No prob Cosmic. You are an active Arabist reader, and have a lot of interesting comments that enriched the discussions on previous postings. We look fwd to your questions, comments and contribution.
Hossam, how are you distinguishing between Salafi and those who might be called pious secularists