An 80-year-old Egyptian Islamic reformist scholar was jailed for telling the truth that Islam was spread by conquest, as obvious as truth is. Ahmed Abdo Maher was being “Islamophobic” in the view of those who judged his case. They found him guilty of “contempt of Islam,” which in the view of Islamic supremacists everywhere is really what “Islamophobia” is. Closer to our neck of the woods, the Toronto District School Board defined “Islamophobia” to be “fear, prejudice, hatred or dislike directed against Islam or Muslims, or towards Islamic politics or culture.” This restrictive definition was supported by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (formerly CAIR-CAN).
Anti-Muslim bigotry is included in the term “Islamophobia,” but in this there is a contradiction: no one shows more bigotry against Muslims globally than other Muslims. Muslim sects which are deemed to be apostate, those that do not ascribe to violent conquest, are routinely persecuted. Twelve million Muslims have been slaughtered by mainstream Muslims since 1948 for not being Muslim enough. The treatment of Maher is an example of Muslims persecuting Muslims for not toeing the mainstream line.
The cruelty of the jihad — both stealth and violent — speaks for itself. The longer the West ignores it, the more the jihad spreads and succeeds globally; its ultimate goal is to extend the hegemony of the Sharia, under which criticism of Islam is a capital offense.
Maher accused Al-Azhar (the world’s foremost Sunni Islamic institution of learning) of “inciting extremism” and called for its closure and reform.
“Octogenarian Egyptian thinker jailed for saying Islam spread by conquest,” The New Arab, November 19, 2021:
An Egyptian court sentenced an 80-year-old-intellectual earlier this week to five years in prison over his remarks on the early Islamic conquests, according to local news reports.
Ahmed Abdo Maher, an Islamic thinker, writer and high-profile lawyer, was found guilty by an emergency state security court of “contempt of Islam, stirring up sectarian strife and posing a threat to the national unity,” the reports added.
Maher claimed in many of his speeches, writings, and TV appearances, that the early Islamic conquests were “military invasions”, and called on Egypt’s top Islamic institution – Al-Azhar – to apologise on behalf of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions who led the raids.
According to Maher, those “invasions aimed to enslave women rather than spread Islam” around the world.
Maher further disputed Islamic scholars’ beliefs about the possibility of the dead being tormented in their graves due to sins.
Earlier in May 2020, lawyer Samir Sabry had filed a complaint against Maher before the prosecutor general, accusing him of contempt of Islam among other related accusations.
Maher was interrogated several times and later referred to trial in October 2021. This week’s verdict is final and cannot be appealed before a higher court.
Based on article 98 of the Egyptian penal code, “whoever exploits religion in order to promote extremist ideology by word of mouth, in writing or in any other manner, with a view to stirring up sedition, or in contempt of any divine religion or its adherents, or undermining national unity shall be punished with prison terms of between six months and five years or a fine of at least 500 Egyptian pounds [about $31].”…….
