At the beginning of the Nineties I was a student of philosophy at Algiers University. The Islamisation of society from below to above and vice versa was the order of the day. Politicised extremist students refused to discuss real problems such as unemployment, the accommodation crisis, corruption, democracy, etc. They believed that the Koran was a sort of safe filled with solutions for solving all of society’s problems, because the Koran is the Word of God and God is infallible. Hence, they believed, all one needed was knowledge of the secret codes, the result of faith and absolute obedience to divine will. Together with number of friends, instead, at our own risk, we had very different opinions. During that period we found courage and support in a book entitled “Naqd al Khitab al Dini” (Critique of the Religious Discourse), by Nasr Abu Zayd, an Egyptian intellectual who a a professor at Cairo University.
The book is based on a very simple and yet profound and revolutionary thesis; the Koran must be interpreted within the historical and social context of the period in which the Prophet Mohammed lived. Koranic verses were answers to certain questions specific to time and place. Basically, there is no such thing as a text without a context. During those years I followed Abu Zayd’s publications as well as his legal Calvary, which began when an Academic Commission examined his candidature for the Chair of Islamic Studies. The Chair was denied him because Abu Zayd was considered an “apostate”.
Later on an Egyptian citizen sued Abu Zayd, accusing him of apostasy on the basis of Hisba, the law that allows an individual citizen to charge someone in the name of the whole of society at any time, should they consider the values of Islam to be threatened. The courts found these accusations of apostasy well-founded and confirmed the verdict which dissolved his marriage, since Abu Zayd was deprived of his status as a Muslim. The Abu Zayds were left with no choice but exile.
One must however bear in mind that hisba goes against the Egyptian Constitution, which in Article 40 states that “all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law and have the same rights and duties and must not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, language or beliefs.” Article 46 sanctions freedom of worship and lastly Article 47 guarantees freedom of expression. Only male Muslims are permitted to invoke Hisba, and consequently women and non-Muslims cannot. In 1996, this provision was changed slightly since only the Attorney General, after examining the request presented by a “Muslim and Egyptian male” can start procedures for a trial.
The case against Abu Zayd was supposed to be a deterrent to prevent intellectuals from exercising their role as critics. In fact, in 2001, the famous Egyptian feminist Nawal Saadawi was tried and then acquitted following a Hisba. Accusations arose from an interview given by Saadawi on March 6th 2001 to the Egyptian weekly magazine Al–Maydan, in which she said that, “the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and kissing the black stone are a legacy of paganism.” This historical-anthropological statement was considered offensive to Islam, a real case of apostasy that, as punishment, required the annulment of her marriage. In Saadawi’s case this meant a forced divorce from her husband, the Egyptian intellectual Samir Shahata, with whom she had been married for 37 years.
While Saadawi’s case had a happy ending and she was acquitted, this was not the case for the scholar Nasr Abu Zayd, who was obliged to take refuge in Holland and suffer many injustices for years. Only a few months ago he was prevented from entering Kuwait by airport authorities as though he were a criminal. The only reason for this was to indulge the extremist wing that is very powerful in the Kuwaiti parliament. I was lucky enough to meet Nasr Abu Zayd in Rome in December 2005. I gave him a copy of my novel “The Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio”, in the Arabic version. He called me the next day to pay his compliments. He had read it in just one night!
At a later date he accepted my request to write a brief introduction to the second edition of my novel, published in the Lebanon. This was a gesture of great generosity and modesty. For me it was a great honour.
Translated by Francesca Simmons