69 million page views

Egypt post 1/25/2011 islamic shrai3a, freedom of speach and the case of Morris Sadek

Reader comment on item: Tantawi – The New Mubarak?

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), May 25, 2011 at 07:01

Morris Sadek is a Copt and a lawyer (b 1942) who immigrated to the US in 1999 and he has many things to say about islam and islamists that are not pleasing some of them. Much of what sadek says is true as in stating that Islamists abduct young Coptic girls and covert them to Islam by force, and that Islamsist attack Copts and burn their churches and that the original inhabitants of Egypt are the Copts (which is true) and that Muslims are no more than guests. He also has no regard for Muhammad, the Qur'an or islam and he is asking the US to protect the Copts in Egypt. Oh one more he wants to see a Coptic state in Egypt free of islam and islamists

So you can see that much of what he is saying make sense and should be viewed in the new Egypt of post 1/25/2011 as freedom of speach! But it seems that Islamists are reading every word he is writing and they do not like it so two Islamist lawyers took him to court and accused him of hisba (see below) and demanded that he be stripped of his Egyptian citizenship! More later

For the readers:

1. It is almost impossible to become a naturalized Egyptian citizenship and it is also almost impossible to be stripped of Egyptian citizenship as it requies the assent of the president of Egypt and which is never granted even in the case of Father Zakaria Botros the declared enemy number one of Islam

2. The doctrine of al-hisba is an obscure doctrine in al-shari3a al-islamiyya that no one heard about before 1993 when it was used in the case of Prof Abu Zaid when he was declared as an apostate. He was a prof of Arabic in Cairo and he wanted to use the tools of literary criticism to examine the Qur'an but this was too much for islamists and they took him to court and used the doctrine of hisba and they demanded that he must be forced to divorce his wife as being an apostate he cannot be married to a Muslim woman! Abu Zaid ended by moving to Holland where he was hired as a prof of Arabic and continued to live with his wife

3. The word hisba is from the Arabic language root HSB where muhasib is an accountant, muhasba means accounting, and hisab means mathematics and hasib means be careful of and muhtasib means he who takes care of the hisba which means arithmetical problem but in this context it means fixing the wrong and it stems from the Quranic injunction: "order what is good and forbid what is wrong"

But as usual the Qur'an never defines any thing so we have to resort to what the ulama say about it. The good was defined by the ulama as the five pillars of Islam and they are al-shahada, al-Haj, al-sawm (fasting), al-sala (prayer) and al-zakat (Wansbrough adds al-jihad or holy war) and that the bad is defined as NOT performing or supporting or participating in these 5-6 pillars by members of the umma in what is good

Notice that crashing big planes in big buildings and in the process killing thousands of people would not make it to the Quranic list of what is really bad

4. So you can see that to be accused of hisba you must be Muslim but in the case of Morris Sadek he is not so they went after his citizenship! and welcome to the islamic shari3a and freedom of speach

So what was the judge's verdict? He stripped Morris Sadek of his Egyptian citizenship! But this is not the end of the story as the case has been taken to mahkamet el-isti'naf which I understand is a higher court so stay tuned

Dislike (2)
Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Submit a comment on this item

<< Previous Comment      Next Comment >>

Reader comments (17) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
'McClatchy Newspapers' Arab pro-Islamism outrageous "writers" [106 words]LisaMay 2, 2012 19:55195396
What has Changed in Egypt [127 words]p. schwartzJul 17, 2011 16:54187517
1Tarek Heggy and how can the Muslim brotherhood be defeated in the upcoming elections [107 words]dhimmi no moreJul 4, 2011 10:12187003
Are the MB or Shafik causing the Egyptian revolution to fail? [384 words]MohsenMay 26, 2012 10:35187003
4Another bizarre salafi fatwa [184 words]dhimmi no moreJun 29, 2011 08:38186891
15The million beards movement and the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt [391 words]dhimmi no moreJun 17, 2011 06:33186403
Things will change very very slowly [319 words]PrashantJun 10, 2011 01:42186131
Plus ca change: torture and "virginity tests" in the new Egypt [201 words]dhimmi no moreMay 31, 2011 12:43185740
5The spy that is not really a spy but may be he is a spy: Iran and the new Egypt [251 words]dhimmi no moreMay 30, 2011 16:29185725
Consider Timur Kuran's Analysis of the Influence of Sharia Law [332 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
SigmundMay 30, 2011 11:24185716
1Hisba and Morris Sadek [146 words]dhimmi no moreMay 26, 2011 06:48185595
Now let Mr. Obama suggest the same to his beloved country Pakistan [22 words]Ravi Ranjan Singh Bharat PanthiMay 25, 2011 13:04185571
Oy Vey [20 words]Barry BlackMay 25, 2011 07:34185554
4Egypt post 1/25/2011 islamic shrai3a, freedom of speach and the case of Morris Sadek [639 words]dhimmi no moreMay 25, 2011 07:01185553
Egypts new direction? [104 words]Larry BMay 28, 2011 20:44185553
5What is next for Egypt [110 words]dhimmi no moreMay 24, 2011 16:51185536
1If Muslims remain true to form [32 words]Seamus Dafydd Dives MacNemiMay 27, 2011 23:12185536

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)