Hat tip Roger Simon and the Instapundit, and provided by Raymond Ibrahim's Islam Translated blog. If this speech is what Mr. Ibrahim says it is, then Sisi is being far bolder and courageous than anyone else in the Islamic -- or Western -- world. We at the Burg have occasionally noted that Islam is in need of both a Reformation and a counter-Reformation: the former to require the faith to review and reinvent itself, and the latter to acknowledge the truth of the former and purge those parts of the faith that need to be removed. We don't carry much weight with the Islamic world, but perhaps Mr. Sisi does.
To quote Roger Simon: "Accusing the umma (world Islamic population) of encouraging the hostility of the entire world, al-Sisi's speech is so dramatic and essentially revolutionary it brings to mind Khrushchev's famous speech exposing Stalin."
Ibrahim questions whether Sisi means the world Islamic population or the population of Egypt with the use of 'umma', but either is interesting. If Sisi is playing a nationalist card here (ala Nasser), then he's proposing to reform Islam in a way that makes the Muslim Brotherhood unnecessary, or at least subordinate to the rulers. That certainly plays to what Sisi and the military, and a fair number of 'moderate' Egyptians, believe. I think that's more likely as Sisi doesn't need or want the trouble he'd court if he were to speak to the umma as the entire Islamic nation. We should remember that Sisi is, fundamentally, conservative in his beliefs and upbringing. Despite his attendance at the U.S. Army War College, he is not a democrat but an authoritarian. This speech may well be part of his effort to bend the local clerics to him and away from the Brotherhood and other Salafist movements that would seek power for themselves.
Even with that it's a remarkable speech. |
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 entire umma [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.
| Extraordinary indeed. I am hoping someone will translate the entire speech and give it wide circulation. In the meantime, Mr. Sisi would do well to ensure that his bodyguards are absolutely reliable. |
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