There's nothing like knowing
Arabic – that is, being privy to the Muslim world's internal conversations on a
daily basis – to disabuse oneself of the supposed differences between so-called
"moderate" and "radical" Muslims.
Consider the case of Egypt's Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb. Hardly one
to be dismissed as a fanatic who is ignorant of the true tenets of Islam,
Tayeb's credentials and career are impressive: he holds a Ph.D. in Islamic
philosophy from the Paris-Sorbonne University; formerly served as grand imam of
Egypt, meaning he was the supreme interpreter of Islamic law; and since 2003
has been president of Al-Azhar University, considered the world's leading
institution of Islamic learning. A 2013 survey named Tayeb the "most
influential Muslim in the world."
He is also regularly described by
Western media and academia as a "moderate." Georgetown
University presents
him as "a strong proponent of interfaith dialogue." According
to The
National, "[h]e is considered to be one of the most moderate and
enlightened Sunni clerics in Egypt." In February 2015, the Wall
Street Journal praised him for making "one of the most sweeping calls
yet for educational reform in the Muslim world to combat the escalation of
extremist violence."
Most recently he was invited to the Vatican and warmly embraced by
Pope Francis. Al Azhar had angrily cut off all ties with the Vatican five
years earlier when, in the words of U.S.
News, former pope Benedict "had demanded greater protection for
Christians in Egypt after a New Year's bombing on a Coptic Christian church in
Alexandria killed 21 people. Since then, Islamic attacks on Christians in
the region have only increased."
Pope Francis referenced
his meeting with Tayeb as proof that Muslims are peaceful: "I had a
long conversation with the imam, the Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar University, and
I know how they think. They [Muslims] seek peace, encounter."
How does one reconcile Tayeb's benevolent image in the West with
his reality in Egypt?
For instance, all throughout the month of Ramadan last June, Tayeb
appeared on Egyptian TV explaining all things Islamic – often in ways that do
not suggest that Islam seeks "peace, encounter."
During one episode, he reaffirmed a phrase that is almost
exclusively associated with radicals: in Arabic, al-din wa'l-dawla,
meaning "the religion and the polity" – a phrase that holds Islam to
be both a religion and a body of rules governing society and state.
He did so in the context of discussing the efforts
of Dr. Ali Abdel Raziq, a true reformer and former professor at Al Azhar
who wrote a popular but controversial book in 1925, one year after the
abolition of the Ottoman caliphate. Titled, in translation, Islam
and the Roots of Governance, it contains Raziq's argument against the idea
of resurrecting the caliphate, saying Islam is a personal religion that should
no longer be mixed with politics or governance.
Raziq was vehemently criticized by many clerics and even fired
from Al Azhar. Concluded Tayeb, with assent:
Al Azhar's position was to
reject his position, saying he forfeited his credentials and his creed. A
great many ulema – in and out of Egypt and in Al Azhar – rejected
his work and its claim, that Islam is a religion but not a polity.
Instead, they reaffirmed that Islam is both a religion and a polity [literally,
al-din wa'l-dawla].
The problem with the idea that Islam must govern the whole of
society should be obvious: sharia, or Islamic law, which is what every Muslim
including Tayeb refers to when he says Islam is a polity, is fundamentally at
odds with modern notions of human rights and, due to its supremacist
and "anti-infidel"
aspects, the source of conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims the world over.
That this is the case was made clear during another of Tayeb's
recent episodes. On the question of apostasy in Islam – whether a Muslim
has the right to abandon Islam for another or no religion – the
"radical" position is well known: unrepentant apostates are to be
punished with death.
Tayeb made the same
pronouncement. During another Ramadan episode, he said,
"Contemporary apostasy presents itself in the guise of crimes, assaults,
and grand treason, so we deal with it now as a crime that must be opposed and
punished."
While his main point was that those who do not follow Islam are
prone to being criminals, he especially emphasized those who exhibit their
apostasy as being a "great danger to Islamic society. And that's
because his apostasy is a result of his hatred for Islam and a reflection of
his opposition to it. In my opinion, this is grand treason."
Tayeb added what all Muslims know: "Those learned in Islamic
law [al-fuqaha] and the imams of the four schools of jurisprudence
consider apostasy a crime and agree that the apostate must either renounce his
apostasy or else be killed." He even cited a hadith, or tradition,
of Islam's prophet Muhammad calling for the execution of Muslims who quit
Islam.
Meanwhile, when speaking to Western and non-Muslim audiences, as
he did during his recent European tour, Tayeb tells them what they want to
hear. Recently speaking before an international forum, he asserted
that "[t]he Quran states that there is no compulsion in religion" and
that "attempts to force people into a religion are against the will of
God." Similarly, when meeting with the
Italian Senate's foreign policy commissioner, Pier Ferdinando Casini, and his
accompanying delegation, Tayeb "asserted that Islam is the religion of
peace, cooperation and mercy. ... Islam believes in freedom of expression and
human rights, and recognizes the rights of all human beings."
While such open hypocrisy – also known as taqiyya
– may go unnoticed in the West, in Egypt, human rights groups often call Tayeb
out. The Cairo Institute for Human Rights recently issued a statement accusing Al Azhar of
having two faces: one directed at the West that preaches freedom and tolerance
and one directed to Muslims that sounds not unlike ISIS:
In March 2016 before the
German parliament, Sheikh al-Tayeb made unequivocally clear that religious
freedom is guaranteed by the Koran, while in Cairo he makes the exact opposite
claims. ... Combating terrorism and radical religious ideologies will not be
accomplished by directing at the West and its international institutions
religious dialogues that are open, support international peace and respect
freedoms and rights, while internally promoting ideas that contribute to the
dissemination of violent extremism through the media and educational curricula
of Al Azhar and the mosques.
At any rate, if Tayeb holds such draconian views on apostasy from
Islam – that is, when he's speaking in Arabic to fellow Muslims – what is his
position concerning the Islamic State? Last December, Tayeb was asked why
Al Azhar refuses to issue a formal statement denouncing the genocidal terrorist organization as lapsing into
a state of kufr – that is, of becoming un-Islamic, or
"infidel." Tayeb responded:
Al Azhar cannot accuse any
[Muslim] of being a kafir [infidel], as long as he believes in
Allah and the Last Day – even if he commits every atrocity. ... I cannot
denounce ISIS as un-Islamic, but I can say that they cause corruption on earth.
Egyptian talk show host Ibrahim
Eissa pointed out, "It's amazing. Al Azhar insists ISIS are
Muslims and refuses to denounce them. Yet Al Azhar never ceases to shoot
out statements accusing novelists, writers, thinkers – anyone who says anything
that contradicts their views – of lapsing into a state of infidelity. But
not when it comes to ISIS!"
This should not be surprising, considering that many insiders
accuse Al Azhar of teaching and legitimizing the atrocities that ISIS commits.
Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Nasr, a scholar of Islamic law and Al Azhar graduate,
once exposed
his alma mater in a televised interview:
It [Al Azhar] can't [condemn
the Islamic State as un-Islamic]. The Islamic State is a byproduct of Al
Azhar's programs. So can Al Azhar denounce itself as un-Islamic? Al
Azhar says there must be a caliphate and that it is an obligation for the
Muslim world [to establish it]. Al Azhar teaches the law of apostasy and
killing the apostate. Al Azhar is hostile towards religious minorities,
and teaches things like not building churches, etc. Al Azhar upholds the institution of jizya. Al Azhar
teaches stoning people. So can Al Azhar denounce itself as un-Islamic?
Similarly, while discussing how the Islamic State burns some of
its victims alive – most notoriously, a Jordanian pilot – Egyptian journalist
Yusuf al-Husayni remarked on
his satellite program that "[t]he Islamic State is only doing what Al
Azhar teaches." He went on to quote from textbooks used in Al Azhar
that permit burning people – more specifically, "infidels" – alive.
Meanwhile, Tayeb – the face of and brain behind Al Azhar – holds
that Europe "must support all moderate Islamic institutions that adopt the
Al-Azhar curriculum," which "is the most eligible one for educating
the youth." He
said this during "a tour [in Germany and France] to facilitate
dialogue between the East and the West."
As for the ongoing persecution of Egypt's most visible non-Muslim
minorities, the Coptic Christians, Tayeb is renowned for turning a blind
eye. Despite the well documented "severe
persecution" Christians experience in Egypt; despite the fact that
Muslim mobs attack Christians almost "every
two to three days" now – recent examples include the
burning of churches and Christian homes; the coldblooded murder
of a Coptic man defending his grandchild from Muslim bullies; and the stripping,
beating, and parading in the nude of a 70-year-old Christian woman – Tayeb
recently told
Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros that "Egypt represents the ultimate and
highest example of national unity" between Muslims and Christians.
Although he vociferously
denounces the displacement of non-Egyptian Muslims
in Buddhist Myanmar, he doesn't have a single word for the persecution and
displacement of the Copts – that is, his own Egyptian countrymen.
Instead, he proclaims
that "the Copts have been living in Egypt
for over 14 centuries in safety, and there is no
need for all this artificial concern over them," adding that
"true terrorism was created by the West."
Indeed, far from speaking up on behalf of Egypt's Christian
minorities, he has confirmed that they are "infidels" – that same label he
refused to describe ISIS with. While he did so in a technical manner –
correctly saying that, as rejecters of Muhammad's prophecy, Christians are
infidels (kafir) – he also knows that labeling them as such validates
all the animosity they feel and experience in Egypt, since the mortal enemy of
the Muslim is the infidel.
This is consistent with the fact that Al Azhar encourages
enmity for non-Muslims, specifically Coptic Christians, and even incites
their murder. As Egyptian political commentator Dr. Khalid al-Montaser
once marveled:
Is it possible at this
sensitive time – when murderous terrorists rest on [Islamic] texts and
understandings of takfir [accusing Muslims of apostasy],
murder, slaughter, and beheading – that Al Azhar magazine is offering free of
charge a book whose latter half and every page – indeed every few lines – ends
with "whoever disbelieves [i.e., non-Muslims] strike off his head"?
The prestigious Islamic university – which co-hosted U.S. President
Obama's 2009 "A New Beginning" speech – has even issued a free
booklet dedicated to proving that Christianity is a "failed
religion."
One can go on and on. Tayeb once explained
with assent why Islamic law permits a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman but
forbids a Muslim woman from marrying a Christian man: since women by nature are
subordinate to men, it's fine if the woman is an infidel, as her superior
Muslim husband will keep her in check, but if the woman is a Muslim, it is not
right that she be under the authority of an infidel. Similarly, Western
liberals may be especially distraught to learn that
Tayeb once boasted, "You will never one day find a Muslim society that
permits sexual freedom, homosexuality, etc., etc., as rights. Muslim
societies see these as sicknesses that need to be resisted and opposed."
To recap, while secular
Western talking heads who don't know the first thing about Islam continue
squealing about how it is being "misunderstood," here is arguably the
Muslim world's leading authority confirming many of the cardinal points held by
ISIS. He believes that Islam is not just a religion to be practiced
privately, but rather a totalitarian system designed to govern the whole of
society through the implementation of its human rights-abusing sharia. He
supports one of the most inhumane laws, punishment of the Muslim who wishes to
leave Islam. He downplays the plight of Egypt's persecuted Christians –
that is, when he's not inciting against them by classifying them as
"infidels" (the worst category in Islam's lexicon) – even as he
refuses to denounce the genocidal Islamic State likewise.
Yet this well credentialed and respected scholar of Islam is
considered a "moderate" by Western universities and media, from
Georgetown University to the Wall Street Journal. He is someone whom Pope
Francis trusts, embraces, and quotes to reassure the West of Islam's
peacefulness.
In all fairness, Tayeb is neither a "moderate" nor a
"radical." He's merely a Muslim trying to be true to Islam.
Put differently, he's merely a messenger.
Critics would be advised to take it up with the message itself.
Raymond Ibrahim,
author of The
Al Qaeda Reader and Crucified
Again, is a Shillman fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and a
Rosen fellow at the Middle East Forum.
