By Raymond Ibrahim ——Bio and Archives--January 8, 2015
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That thinking [that is responsible for producing "anxiety, danger, killing and destruction" around the world]--I am not saying "religion" but "thinking"--that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the centuries, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. It's antagonizing the entire world!As a Muslim, Sisi will not say that Islam, the "religion," is responsible for "antagonizing the entire world," but he certainly goes much further than his Western counterparts when he says that this "thinking" is rooted in an Islamic "corpus of texts and ideas" which have become so "sacralized." Recall that here in the West, Islamic terrorists are seen as mere "criminals" and their terrorism as "crimes" without mention of any Islamic text or ideology driving them. The Egyptian president further invoked the classical Islamic teaching--the "thinking"--that divides the world into two warring halves: the Muslim world (or in Islamic/Arabic parlance, Dar al-Islam) which must forever be in a struggle with the rest of the world (or Dar al-Harb, the "abode of war") till, in the Koran's words, "all religion belongs to Allah" (Koran 8:39). "Is it possible," asked Sisi, "that 1.6 billion people should want to kill the rest of the world's inhabitants--that is 7 billion--so that they themselves may live?" Sisi made another important point that Western leaders and media habitually lie about: after affirming that Islamic "thinking" is "antagonizing the entire world," he said that "thisummais being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost--and it is being lost by our own hands." In other words, Islamic terrorism and chaos is not a product of grievance, territorial disputes, colonialism, Israel, offensive cartoons, or anything else the West points to. It's a product of their "own hands." Again, one must appreciate how refreshing it is for a top political leader in the heart of the Islamic world to make such candid admissions that his Western counterparts dare not even think let alone speak. And bear in mind, Sisi has much to lose as opposed to Western politicians. Calls by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists that he is an apostate are sure to grow more aggressive now. The critic may ask, "All well and good, but words aside, what has Sisi actually done to help bring about this "religious revolution"? In fact, one popular journalist, Ibrahim Eissa, recently said just this on live television in Egypt:
Five months have passed since he [Sisi] became president, after his amazing showing at elections. Okay: the president has, more than once, indicated the need for a renewal of religious discourse.... But he has not done a single thing, President Sisi, to renew religious discourse. Nothing at all.Yet it seems that Sisi has an answer for this, too: it is not his job as president of Egypt to reform the thinking of the Islamic world; rather, that role belongs to the ulema--which is precisely why he addressed them with such candid words. Indeed, he repeatedly stressed that it is the ulema's job to lead this "religious revolution." Thus, "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.... 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." Meanwhile, while Sisi was making these groundbreaking if not historic statements, the Western mainstream media, true to form, ignored them and instead offered puerile and redundant headlines, most critical of Sisi, like:
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RAYMOND IBRAHIM (RaymondIbrahim.com) is a widely published author, public speaker, and Middle East and Islam expert. His books include Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). His writings, translations, and observations have appeared in a variety of publications, including Fox News, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times Syndicate, United Press International, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard; scholarly journals, including the Almanac of Islamism, Chronicle of Higher Education, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, and Middle East Review of International Affairs; and popular websites, such as American Thinker, the Blaze, Bloomberg, Christian Post, FrontPage Magazine, Gatestone Institute, the Inquisitr, Jihad Watch, NewsMax, National Review Online, PJ Media, VDH’s Private Papers, and World Magazine. He has contributed chapters to several anthologies and been translated into various languages.