Sayyid Al-Qemany is an Egyptian writer and thinker. Born on March 13, 1947 in the province of Beni Suef

Beni Suef

- Overview :Beni Suef is an important agricultural center, which grew from a small village at the turn of the century and now hosts a population of over 200,000. It was famous for its linen manufacturing in the Middle Ages, and continues to be heavily involved in cotton-spinning and carpet-making....

, he is a controversial writer. His works emphasize the importance of critical thinking

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...

, and he is an opponent of Islamic fundamentalism

Islamic fundamentalism

Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...

, supporting separation of religion and state, and tolerance. He has been awarded the Egyptian Culture Ministry's 2009 prize for achievement in the social sciences of 200,000 Egyptian pounds (about USD $36,000). The bestowing of the award launched "a judicial and media campaign demanding" its withdrawal by those who claim Al-Qimni is a heretic who has "harmed Islam and the Muslims with his writings".

Islamists Accusations of Heresy

However the award has been attacked by former Egyptian mufti Dr. Nasr Farid Wasil who called the decision to award Al-Qimni the prize "a crime against Egypt's Muslim identity." The islamic association Jabhat 'Ulama Al-Azhar stated that Al-Qimni "has openly blasphemed in a manner that does not lend itself to [any other] interpretation." The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood

Muslim Brotherhood

The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...

 and al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya

Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya

Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya is an Egyptian Islamist movement, and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union and Egyptian governments...

 have also attacked Sayyed Al-Qimni Dar Al-Ifta, Egypt's official fatwa

Fatwa

A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...

-issuing body, headed by Chief Mufti

Mufti

A mufti is a Sunni Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law . In religious administrative terms, a mufti is roughly equivalent to a deacon to a Sunni population...

 Dr. 'Ali Gomaa issued a fatwa stating in part:

"The Muslims [believe] unanimously that whoever curses the Prophet or slanders Islam removes himself from the fold of Islam and [from the community] of Muslims, and deserves punishment in this world and torment in the world to come... The statements [from Al-Qimni's writings] quoted by the [individual] who requested the fatwa are heretical, regardless of who wrote them; they remove their author from the fold of Islam… and [also] constitute a crime according to Article 98 of [Egypt's] penal code. If these depraved, loathsome, and invalid statements were indeed made by a specific individual, then this individual should be convicted rather than awarded a prize, and punished to the full extent of the law..."

Shiekh Youssef Al Badri has accused Sayyed Al-Qimni of "deconstructing Islam using eloquent sugar-coated attacks ... more fatal than Salman Rushdie". In turn Sayyed Al-Qimni replied that Badri was accusing him of atheism

Atheism

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

. "Islamic scholars do not want the Muslim to use his God-given brain! They want a submissive and obedient Muslim who refers to them in the slightest details of his life."

Egyptian liberals

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 have come to Al-Qimni's defense and called on the government to defend Sayyed Al-Qimni against accusations of heresy

Apostasy in Islam

Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...

 "which are tantamount to incitement to murder." Human rights activists, academics, and journalists have reportedly issued a petition of solidarity with him.

Books

• The Religious and Democracy (ahl al-din wal-dimuqratiyah): 2005
• The Islamic Groups: a view from within (al-jama'aat al-islamiyah ru'yah min al-dakhil): 2004
• Islamic Traditions (al-islamiyat): 2001
• Traditions About the Tribe of Israel (al-isra'iliyat): 2002
• Israel: Revolution, History, Delusion (isra'il, al-thawrah al-tarikh al-tadlil): 2000
• The Creation Story (qissat al-khalq): 1999
• The Prophet Moses and the Last Days of Tel el-Amarna (al-nabi musa wa'akhar ayyam tal al-'amarna): 1987
• The Wars of the Prophet's State: (hurub dawlat al-rusul): 1996
• The Unknown History of the Prophet Abraham (al-nabi ibrahim wal-tarikh al-majhul): 1996
• The Other Question: (al-su'al al-akhar): 1998
• Shukran ... bin Laden!! 2004. ("Thank You ... Bin Laden!!")

Honors

Egypt State Award of Merit Prize in the social sciences for the year 2009, which is Egypt’s highest award.

See also

• Lists of Egyptians
• Farag Foda
  Farag Foda
  Farag Foda , also Faraj Fawda, was an important Egyptian thinker, human rights activist, writer, and columnist.Based in Cairo, he was noted for his critical articles and sharp satires about Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt. In many newspaper articles, he demonstrated weak points in Islamic ideology...
  
  
• Nasr Abu Zayd
  Nasr Abu Zayd
  Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was an Egyptian Qur'anic thinker and one of the leading liberal theologians in Islam. He is famous for his project of a humanistic Qur'anic hermeneutics.- Biography :...
  
  
• Muhammad Sa'id al-'Ashmawi
  Muhammad Sa'id al-'Ashmawi
  Muhammad Sa'id al-'Ashmawi is a retired Egyptian Supreme Court justice and former head of the Court of State Security and a specialist in comparative and Islamic law at Cairo University...
  
  
• article on Al Jazeera interview with Sayed El Qemany 3.10.2004 (in Arabic).
• article on Al Jazeera interview with Sayed El Qemany 16.3.2007 (in Arabic).

External links

• Qimny blog (arabic)
• Death Threats to Sayyid al-Qimni, Egyptian historian and thinker, by usamahasan
• http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA54909 - "Dispute over Granting of State Award to Egyptian Liberal Sayyed Al-Qimni"