03/04/2018
8162 times read
03/04/2018
8162 times read
THE eminent Egyptian thinker Zaki Najib asks: What is extremism in thought? And in response says it is to choose an intellectual and ideological dwelling and be satisfied with yourself, but at the same time you do not want anyone else to choose what is good for him from the thought and faith, but to bind him with iron and fire, sometimes, engage the person with you under one intellectual roof! This is exactly what the Ministry of Awqaf is doing to us, and what most of its officials, who have made the ministry building their intellectual home take this opportunity to attack their opponents. It may be said that what these people are doing is one of their core tasks. This is true, but the lesson is the result. What has the Muslims done over the centuries when religious forces tried to impose one color of ideological thinking on them? Why do we find that the most advanced countries are the most colorful and pluralistic in the beliefs and ideas of their members, and therefore the most powerful? The time when any communist, religious, capitalist system could impose its entire will and its sole ideology on the peoples has gone away forever. This was possible to a certain extent when ignorance was prevalent and most of the peoples did not know the way of life or other peoples and their potentials, but with all this global openness, the spread of communication and all this integration and the cultural, political, commercial and industrial mixing of societies, this task has become almost impossible in the short term, and in the long term. We feel all this is just excitement and waste of efforts, while we know that neither the Ministry of Awqaf nor dozens of others, with all the strength, brutality, money, media and laws, can impose their visions on people without consequences more serious than what they sought to apply? How can a sane, or even half-crazy person, think that the freedom of women means disassociation from customs, chastity, modesty, disintegration and forgiveness? And how can the hundreds of thousands of people listen to the unified sermon of ‘Awqaf’ on its website and then the undersecretary of the Ministry of Awqaf declares that the Friday sermon (March 23) did not include any accusation against the non-veiled women as people of degeneration? How can a senior official, who is a member of a larger religious political party, openly deny what was said in the sermon, which linked atheism, infidelity, and disintegration to the veil of women, and what is his comment to hundreds of tweets who directly repudiated his statement? We reiterate that it is not for officials of the Ministry of Awqaf to recognize the right of women to wear what they want or make as they please. These are personal issues in the whole world, not morally disassociated because ethics cannot be judged by appearance. Those who believe that indecency is inherent to the moral disintegration are undoubtedly calling for the spread of lies, and the social hypocrisy that takes into account the aspects and omits what true ethics mean. And what about the other manifestations of disintegration in the state such as financial corruption and thefts in cooperative societies and charity organizations, benefitting from real estate deals and money laundering, and dozens of corruption cases which have been referred to the Prosecution, including senior officials in the Ministry of Awqaf itself, and the Quran Department? It is indeed, regrettable to note after all these accusations and all this unfair and correct denial, the undersecretary of the ministry should remain in office even for one day. Note: MP Ahmad Al-Fadhel said to the Minister of Awqaf: “Your ministry’s undersecretary says that the Friday sermon did not accuse the non-veiled women as being disintegrated, so who is lying to us? It is ugly to justify what is wrong, but what is even worse is not holding the responsible person accountable.” e-mail: [email protected] By Ahmad Al-Sarraf