Egyptian Scholar Sentenced to Five Years Imprisonment for Recounting Accurate History of Islam

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Raymond Ibraham

According to a Nov. 19, 2021ย report, โ€œAn Egyptian court sentenced an 80-year-old-intellectual earlier this week to five years in prison over his remarks on the early Islamic conquests.โ€ย ย Dr. Ahmed Abduโ€˜ Maher, a high-profile lawyer, expert on Islam, and author of 14 books on Islamic history and jurisprudence, was found guilty of โ€œcontempt of Islam, stirring up sectarian strife and posing a threat to the national unity.โ€

One of Maherโ€™s chief โ€œcrimesโ€ is his view on the seventh and eighth century Arab conquestsโ€”a view based on a close and correct reading of both Muslim and non-Muslim sources: that Arabs conquerors invaded non-Muslim regionsโ€”specifically the Middle East, North Africa, and Spainโ€”and engaged in atrocity after atrocity; that, while โ€œspreading Islamโ€ was the motive later Islamic historiography attributed to the Arabs, their true actions belied a lust for rape and rapine; and that they overthrew and supplanted much more advanced societies, to the regionโ€™s lasting regret.

Put differently, Maherโ€™s views are identical with those presented inย Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, particularly its first three chapters that revolve around the early Arab conquests.ย  As the Nov. 19 report continues,

Maher claimed in many of his speeches, writings, and TV appearances, that the early Islamic conquests were โ€œmilitary invasionsโ€, and called on Egyptโ€™s top Islamic institutionโ€”Al-Azharโ€”to apologise on behalf of the Prophet Muhammadโ€™s companions who led the raids.ย  According to Maher, those โ€œinvasions aimed to enslave women rather than spread Islamโ€ around the world.

Maherโ€™s position naturally goes counter to the mainstream Islamic presentation of the early Arab conquests, which are referred to asย futuhatโ€”literally, โ€œopeningsโ€ for the light of Islam to enter (orย fatahย in the singular, as the Palestinian group tellingly calls itself).ย  In this context, every land ever invaded or seized by Muslims was done โ€œaltruisticallyโ€ to bring Islam to wayward infidels, who are seen as the aggressors for unjustly resisting Islam.ย  Or, in the words of an article titled โ€œThe Wisdom of Jihad,โ€ published by the popular website, Islam Question and Answer, jihad does not โ€œonly and simply mean to kill non-Muslimsโ€; rather, โ€œTheย kuffaarย [non-Muslims] whom we fight will themselves benefit from jihad. We strive against them and fight them so that they will enter the religion of Allah which is acceptable to Him, which will lead to their salvation in this world and in the Hereafter.โ€

Maher made his position especially well-known back in early 2017, when the Muslim world was in an uproar after the announcement of President Donald Trumpโ€™s โ€œMuslim banโ€ (as referred to by his woke enemies).ย  Then, Maher had posted aย videoย on YouTube (since removed, naturally, though not before I hadย translated relevant excerpts, which follow):

Friends, in regards to โ€ฆ Donald Trump, we wanted to ask our brothersโ€”theย fuqahaย [jurists of Islamic law] and theย ulemaย [scholars of Islam]โ€”a question: if this man โ€ฆ were to coerce, through the power of arms, the greater majority of Muslims living in America โ€ฆ to become Christians, or payย jizya, otherwise he takes over their homes, kills their men and enslaves their women and girls, and sells them on slave markets; if he were to do all this, would he be considered a racist and a terrorist or not?

Of course, Iโ€™m just hypothesizing, and know that the Bible and its religion do not promote such things, but letโ€™s just assume: Would he be a racist or not?ย  Would he be a terrorist or not?ย  How then [when one considers] that we have in our Islamic jurisprudence, which you teach us, and tell us that all the imams have agreed on, that the Islamic openings [i.e., conquests] are the way to disseminate Islam?ย  This word โ€œopeningsโ€ [futuhat]โ€”we must be sensitive to it!ย  The Islamic openings mean swords and killing.ย  The Islamic openings, through which homes, fortresses, and territories were devastated, these โ€ฆ [are part of] an Islam which you try to make us follow.

So I wonder O sheikh, O leader of this or that Islamic center in NY, would you like to see this done to your wife and daughter?ย  Would youโ€”this or that sheikhโ€”accept that this be done to your children?ย  That your daughter goes to this fighter [as a slave], your son to this fighter, a fifth [of booty] goes to the caliph and so forth?ย  I mean, isnโ€™t this what you refer to as the Sharia of Allah? โ€ฆย  So letโ€™s think about things in an effort to discern whatโ€™s right and whatโ€™s wrong.

In short, Maher asked the clerics of Islam what, precisely, they were complaining about.  All that Trump had done is ban immigration from Muslim nations closely associated with terrorism.  What if he actually treated Muslims in America the way Muslims have always treated non-Muslims under their authorityโ€”the way Islamic law, sharia, demandsโ€”that is, in a manner far worse than simply banning immigration from terrorist countries in the interest of national security?

For having such views and asking such questions, Maher has just been sentenced to five years imprisonmentโ€”the maximum penaltyโ€”in accordance withย Article 98 Fย of the Egyptian penal code, better known as the โ€œanti-blasphemy law,โ€ which states that:

Detention for a period of not less than six months and not exceeding five years, or paying a fine of not less than five hundred pounds and not exceeding one thousand pounds shall be the penalty inflicted on whoever exploits and uses the religion in advocating and propagating by talk or in writing, or by any other method, extremist thoughts with the aim of instigating sedition and division or disdaining and contempting any of the heavenly religions or the sects belonging thereto, or prejudicing national unity or social peace.

Nor is Maherโ€™s case an aberration; as the Nov. 19ย reportย says, โ€œSeveral other intellectuals, writers, and public figures have stood trial or received verdicts over the past few decades for their views under the infamous anti-blasphemy law.โ€

On Nov. 29, Maher appeared onย BBC Arabic.ย  He refused to offer an apology, insisted that all he had done is relay accurate history and ask commonsensical questions, and urged Egyptian President al-Sisiโ€”now his only hope, as Maherโ€™s recent five-year-imprisonment sentencing is final and cannot be appealed before a higher courtโ€”to consider pardoning him.

As obscene as Maherโ€™s experiences are, itโ€™s worth noting that something similar is happening in the West, though in reverse: whereas Muslim nations insist on portraying their brutal and savage heroes of the past as noble and pious, Western nations insist on portraying their noble and pious heroes of the past as brutal and savage (in a word, โ€œracistโ€).ย  As Western governments become more third-world dictatorialโ€”and as their woke-war on history becomes more fanaticalโ€”look to see elements of Maherโ€™s fate surfacing in the West.

Byย Raymond Ibrahim

Read Full Article on RaymondIbrahim.com

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