Weekly Review

Supporters of the Coptic Church celebrated this week. Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court overruled the High Administrative Court’s ruling in May that had ordered the Church to allow its followers to remarry, contrary to the Coptic Church’s doctrine. Leaders of the Anglican and Catholic Churches also applauded the decision. A summary of the issues involved in the remarriage issue is available here and here.

This week Egypt was host to an historic event- the first recorded celebration of the birthday of Aminah bint Wahb, the mother of the Prophet Muhammad. Aminah bint Wahb doesn’t enjoy the same status as Fatima or Khaijah, prominent matriarchal figures in Islam. Many consider her to be an apostate and are opposed to celebrating her life. However, Sheikh Mohamed Abul Azayem and the Egyptian Al-Azmiya Sufi Order chose to mark her birthday with a celebration, assumed to be the first time this even has been celebrated in the Islamic world.

Last Sunday saw another attack (by two men with knives) on Egyptian convert to Christianity, Maher Al-Gohary. Since Maher’s publicized his conversion in 2008, he has had numerous threats to his life, and even a fatwa issued calling for his life. Islam forbids conversion to another religion. As a result, Maher and his daughter Dina have spent two years in hiding. Their attempts to seek asylum abroad or get governmental protection, or even recognition of the conversion have been unsuccessful, and even resulted in their passports being confiscated indefinitely. Maher continues to pursue legal options, while supporters abroad work to galvanize international support.

Also this week, Egyptian scholar Nasr Abu Zaid passed away. He was buried in Egypt, bringing closure to a life of hardship and persecution. Abu Zaid spent fifteen years in exile in the Netherlands after his views about the Quran were seen as heretical by more conservative colleagues, in 1995. An interview of his about his experiences is available here.

On a more positive note, the Cairo branch of the American Islamic Congress hosted a successful event to train young leaders in the skills of artful debating. After training the students, the topic of whether “the primary obstacle to religious tolerance in Egypt is popular attitudes not laws”, was debated. Although poll results showed popular opinion to be in favor of the statement going into the debate, the team appointed to argue against it performed masterfully,  completely reversing public opinion and winning the debate.