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 Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 (Re: Mohamed Abdelgaleel)
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Islam's organic liberalism
Ali Eteraz
The Guardian Newspaper
July 26, 2007 2:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ali_eteraz/2007/07/...anic_liberalism.html
On July 21, in an opinion posted by Newsweek, Dr Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, made a startling declaration about freedom of conscience in Islam. He stated that not only could a Muslim choose a religion other than Islam but "there is no worldly punishment" for rejecting Islam. Relying on the Quran, he argued that while leaving Islam was a sin in the eyes of God - which would be punished on the Day of Judgment - this did not mean that Islam could be imposed on anyone by force
A number of Western papers took this to mean that finally one of Islam's leading scholars had outlawed the death penalty for apostasy, meaning a Muslim could openly become a Christian, or an atheist, and would not be killed. Islamic enlightenment seemed to have finally made its arrival
Yet, three days later, speaking to local papers, Dr Gomaa seemingly rescinded his opinion, stating that what he "actually said" was that "apostasy is a crime, which must be punished." Aptly, the Gulf News headline read: "Top cleric denies 'freedom to choose religion' comment." Conversation with Gomaa's people reveals that his actual quote given to the newspaper was: "This disobedience can, in some of its manifestations, embody a departure from the general norms ... and a kind of crime that would necessitate punishment"
This direct turn-around, (or guarded qualification if one accepts Gomaa's version of what he said), appeared curious to many. What happened? Does Dr Gomaa think that an apostate should be punished, or does he not?
A close read of Gomaa's Newsweek opinion shows that the answer is "both". The opinion is a serious bit of legal reasoning. On one hand Gomaa indeed eliminates the death penalty for apostasy in Islamic law (by citing Quranic verses dealing with freedom of conscience), which is a major event. However, on the other hand, he grants to the Egyptian "judicial system" the authority to prosecute certain apostates - those that leave Islam in "public" - for the "crime of undermining the foundations of society". He ends up proposing a new criminal cause of action called "sedition against one's society". Sedition is not an Islamic term. It is a secular term that does not exist in the Quran
Is it the case that Gomaa found a way to affirm penalising public apostasy via the back door? Yes, he did. The question is, why did he use a back door at all? Like thousands of Islamic jurists in the past, he could have easily said that Islam requires punishing apostates and be done with it. Yet he didn't do that. He first said that Islam was against penalising private apostasy, and he then moved to penalise public apostasy because it was a social (and not religious) problem
Why go to all these lengths?
Simple: Muslim leaders are no longer relying upon religious law - "because God said so" - to justify their religious ends. Instead, they are coming up with what we western lawyers call "value-neutral terminology." I saw this in Pakistan's Women's Protection Bill last year. In order to pull rape cases out of the Shariah courts, reformers created new secular crimes to replace what used to be Shariah crimes. They did so even though the new secular crimes did not qualitatively differ from old religious crimes (ie "fornication" was renamed "lewdness"). This was smart. "Fornication" is a Quranic term backed by Islamic law but "lewdness" is a value-neutral term with no fixed meaning except what a contemporary criminal court decides (and in Pakistan's case, the criminal courts are secular). If, and when, a law against "lewdness" is abolished, abolition wouldn't be considered an assault on religion as it was never a religious term to begin with
This sort of transubstantiation of religious ideas into secular terminology is the west's original contribution to government, and the backbone of liberalism. Starting at the Enlightenment, western leaders took their appeals to God or religious law, out of lawmaking (even if they secretly did wish to satisfy God or religious law). Even at the height of conservatism in the US, when proposing legislation, the most fundamentalist Christian Congressperson will not invoke Jesus. His or her faith might certainly inform his positions but the Congressperson will seek non-religious ways of winning the argument: patriotism, commerce, public health, or social good. This is what Gomaa is doing with apostasy
Certainly none of us agree with Gomaa that apostasy be classified as sedition, or even be punished at all; but we must at least appreciate that he tried to assert his position in an explicitly non-religious manner
Gomaa's Newsweek opinion does not directly advance the rights of apostates as western newspapers initially thought. In political terms it doesn't help apostates at all. It is, however, an opinion that starts, just barely, to separate religion from state. Such a trend will lead to Muslim fundamentalists in the future having to justify their imposition on non-Muslims in "secular" or "value-neutral" terms. That creates a much more even playing-field for non-Muslim minorities in Muslim countries. Further, by taking the imprimatur of Islam out of the discussion, and leaving the crime to be defined by the state, Gomaa, one of the top Islamic scholars in Egypt, has deferred a religious question to Mubarak (and in the future, one hopes to Egyptian democrats). In other words, he has "rendered unto Caesar" - which is a nascent version of separation of religion from state
Muslims like Gomaa, by pulling Islam out of political debates, can, and are, creating the conditions for liberalism. We should celebrate that while remembering that they will not work at a pace dictated by us in the west
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| العنوان |
الكاتب |
Date |
| لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-27-07, 02:02 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Mohamed E. Seliaman | 06-27-07, 02:16 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-27-07, 02:41 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | ابوبكر على | 06-27-07, 02:47 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-27-07, 03:15 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | محمد المرتضى حامد | 06-27-07, 03:24 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-27-07, 04:01 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Mohamed E. Seliaman | 06-27-07, 03:09 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-27-07, 08:33 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-01-07, 07:48 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | ibrahim fadlalla | 06-27-07, 02:57 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-27-07, 09:56 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | انعام حيمورة | 06-27-07, 03:05 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | omer almahi | 06-27-07, 03:49 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-28-07, 06:32 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-27-07, 11:10 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | abubakr | 06-27-07, 07:53 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-28-07, 07:00 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | الطيب شيقوق | 06-28-07, 08:37 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-28-07, 01:50 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | ابوبكر على | 06-28-07, 08:38 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | على محمد على بشير | 06-28-07, 08:55 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-28-07, 04:06 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | د.محمد حسن | 06-28-07, 09:39 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Mohamed Abdelgaleel | 06-28-07, 09:57 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-28-07, 02:43 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-28-07, 10:13 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | abubakr | 06-28-07, 05:01 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-29-07, 09:29 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-29-07, 12:59 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-29-07, 06:55 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | abubakr | 06-29-07, 07:05 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-29-07, 07:21 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | khaleel | 06-29-07, 07:32 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 06-30-07, 09:13 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-01-07, 10:39 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | abubakr | 07-01-07, 12:28 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-01-07, 12:36 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | السوباوي | 07-01-07, 01:35 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | سامي عبد الوهاب إدريس | 07-01-07, 05:12 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-01-07, 08:20 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-01-07, 10:38 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | السوباوي | 07-02-07, 10:12 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-02-07, 11:56 PM |
 Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | alfatih | 07-03-07, 00:05 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-03-07, 01:06 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | غادة عبدالعزيز خالد | 07-03-07, 01:11 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | abubakr | 07-03-07, 03:32 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-03-07, 06:13 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-03-07, 06:37 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-03-07, 08:08 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-03-07, 10:06 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-03-07, 11:30 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | عبدالله داش | 07-03-07, 11:27 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-04-07, 00:23 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-04-07, 08:52 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-04-07, 05:49 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-05-07, 00:59 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | ابوبكر على | 07-05-07, 01:19 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | ابوبكر على | 07-05-07, 01:23 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-06-07, 03:06 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-05-07, 01:51 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | abubakr | 07-05-07, 02:02 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-05-07, 02:45 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-06-07, 03:45 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-06-07, 05:04 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | محمد عثمان | 07-06-07, 05:16 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-08-07, 06:21 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-08-07, 07:14 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-08-07, 04:17 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-09-07, 12:37 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-09-07, 01:23 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-09-07, 10:26 PM |
| الكماشه.. | Muna Khugali | 07-10-07, 06:55 PM |
| Re: الكماشه.. | Muna Khugali | 07-10-07, 09:09 PM |
| Re: الكماشه.. | عصام عبد الحفيظ | 07-10-07, 10:10 PM |
| Re: الكماشه.. | Muna Khugali | 07-11-07, 11:09 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-11-07, 06:48 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-11-07, 11:33 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | د.محمد حسن | 07-11-07, 12:08 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-11-07, 01:42 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | abubakr | 07-11-07, 01:55 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-11-07, 02:53 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-11-07, 04:06 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-12-07, 12:38 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-13-07, 05:25 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-15-07, 07:17 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-15-07, 12:05 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Mohamed Abdelgaleel | 07-16-07, 10:36 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-16-07, 11:19 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-16-07, 11:43 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-16-07, 11:58 AM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | omar altom | 07-16-07, 12:13 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-16-07, 12:22 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | omar altom | 07-16-07, 12:32 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-16-07, 12:43 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-25-07, 09:13 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | osman righeem | 07-16-07, 12:41 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | د.محمد حسن | 07-16-07, 01:16 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | انعام حيمورة | 07-16-07, 01:37 PM |
| Re: لحظه من فضلك..3 | Muna Khugali | 07-28-07, 09:06 PM |
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Mohamed Omer
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست