Speaking before Al-Azhar and the Awqaf Ministry on New Year’s Day, 2015, and in connection to Prophet Muhammad’s upcoming birthday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a vocal supporter for a renewed vision of Islam, made what must be his most forceful and impassioned plea to date on the subject.
Among other things, Sisi said that the “corpus of [Islamic] texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years” are “antagonizing the entire world”; that it is not “possible that 1.6 billion people [reference to the world’s Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants—that is 7 billion—so that they themselves may live”; and that Egypt (or the Islamic world in its entirety) “is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.”
The relevant excerpt from Sisi’s speech follows (translation by Michele Antaki):
I am referring here to the religious clerics. We have to think hard about what we are facing—and I have, in fact, addressed this topic a couple of times before. It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entireumma [Islamic world] to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible!
That thinking—I am not saying “religion” but “thinking”—that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world!
Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants—that is 7 billion—so that they themselves may live? Impossible!
I am saying these words here at Al Azhar, before this assembly of scholars and ulema—Allah Almighty be witness to your truth on Judgment Day concerning that which I’m talking about now.
All this that I am telling you, you cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset. You need to step outside of yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective.
I say and repeat again that we are in need of a religious revolution. You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire world, I say it again, the entire world is waiting for your next move… because this umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.
Note: It is unclear if in the last instance of umma Sisi is referring to Egypt (“the nation”) or if he is using it in the pan-Islamic sense as he did initially to refer to the entire Islamic world.
yamit82 Said:
makes sense
bernard ross Said:
Greed!!! Monopolistic supply contracts by an elite group made up of businessmen and ex Security people of Israel and key Hamas terrorists on their side. Unification of Hamas and Fatah could be a game changer on who gets cut in and out of these sweetheart deals, Many $ billions of dollars would be up for grabs.
One of the reasons Israel has not gone after the heads of Hamas but mostly the expendable little guys is because the heads are our sides select business partners.
yamit82 Said:
like what?
@ bernard ross:
Look all polls and experts maintain that Hamas is more popular than Fatah in PA…. They could probably take it over by force if they wanted to.
Keeping the fiction of separation is an Israeli excuse for maintaining them. I suspect something more nefarious is at play.
It appears that Israel is relying on its deal with Egypt AND wants to maintain Hamas. I expect that maintaining Hamas prevents reunion with fatah and any overall deal.
Look, I have no doubt that Sisi is a devout Muslim, wants to see a Palestinian state, thinks the Israelis are being too harsh, and probably wishes that Europe had never moved its “Jewish problem” to the Middle East.
Having said all that, he has done more for the defense of Israel in the last two years than anyone else outside of Israel. Caroline Glick also said as much last month.
Every year, Dov Efune at The Algemeiner picks at the end of the year the ten non-Jews who did the most to help Jews and Israel over the past year.
In 2014, el-Sisi was #3 (behind Narendra Modi and Mitch McConnell)
In 2013, he was #1.