Salaam friends. Today we will focus on the continued oppression of the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) in Egypt, which once used to enjoy glory and freedom for people of all creeds during over two-and-a-half centuries of rule by the Fatemids, who built the city of Cairo and established the al-Azhar academy in honour of the Prophet's Immaculate Daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (peace upon her).
Today the 3-million strong community, which suffered greatly under the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, and was treated in a step-motherly manner by the so-called Islamic government of Mohammad Morsi, has again seen its birthrights and national aspirations trampled under the military rule of General Sisi. Please stay with us for excerpts – along with our editing – from an analysis by Ashraf Khalil titled Egypt's "Oppressed Shi'ite Muslims Struggle for Rights, No Matter the Regime in Charge".
For most of modern Egypt's history, Taheral-Hashemi has seen his community neglected at best, suppressed and hunted at worst. "We were persecuted under [former President Hosni] Mubarak and under [former President Mohammed] Morsi it reached the stage of killing our leaders," said Hashemi, a member of Egypt's Shi'ite Muslim minority. So when Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood official, was ousted from the presidency in the July coup, Hashemi saw an opportunity. Public sentiment has turned harshly against the Brotherhood and their Salafist allies and a new constitution is being written that, according to news reports, promises unprecedented protections for religious minorities.So on the occasion of anniversary of the heart-rending tragedy of Karbala, they decided to test the waters a bit. They announced plans to publicly observe the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet's grandson, Imam Husain (AS), at Old Cairo's al-Husain Mosque, something they never would have dared under Morsi or Mubarak.
"We had hoped that all groups in the new Egypt would be able to enjoy their full rights," said Hashemi. Some believe that the holy head of Imam Husain (AS) was brought to Egypt from Damascus by the Fatemid rulers and buried in this mosque. But when Hashemi and a group of Shi'ite Muslims approached the al-Husain Mosque on Thursday eve, they found the whole area on security lockdown and the mosque closed for maintenance. "We couldn't enter, so we said our prayers at the door and then left peacefully," he said.The obstacles weren't exactly a surprise. The Shi'ite Muslim group's announcement had set off a week of frantic media speculation about whether the plan would lead to violence. The seditious Salafists threatened to physically oppose the followers of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt.In the end, government officials barely maintained the pretense that maintenance was the real reason for closing the mosque.
Sabri Ebada, undersecretary in the Ministry of Religious Endowment, told the Youmas-Sabaa newspaper, the ministry will not allow any commemorations or calls that in his opinion are aimedat dividing Muslims in Egypt. Hashemi's attempt to step into the light had instead revealed just how far his community may still have to go to gain the right to truly worship freely in Egypt. The public showdown reveals some of the social complexities roiling Egypt after the rise and fall of Morsi and the Brotherhood. Previously passive religious minorities, like the Shi'ite Muslims, are becoming more assertive, while bigoted sectarian elements still hold sway in a society that remains deeply divided along religious lines despite its secular slogans.
The Brotherhood no longer run the government, but Egypt does not seem to be experiencing a new dawn of religious openness. And Shi'ite Muslims in particular still feel persecuted. Their plight reflects the Islamic Awakening, which stoked Shi'ite Muslim ambitions in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia – where they are brutally suppressed despite their overwhelming majority in Bahrain and the Eastern region of the Arabian Peninsula. Even in a country like Egypt, not known for this kind of religious friction and without a large Shi'ite Muslim population, tensions are high.Egypt is overwhelmingly Sunni now, but 8 centuries ago the country was the heart of the Shi'ite Muslim Fatemid Empire that spread across North Africa and controlled Syria and Hijaz.
Estimates of the number of Shi'ite Muslims in the country vary – ranging from 1.5 million to 3 million out of 80 million Egyptians. Most school children are taught little or nothing about the history and ideology of Shi'ite Muslims – while the seditious Salafists portray the Shi'ite Muslims as alien or sinister. Ashura, the saddest days on the Islamic calendar, especially for followers of the Blessed Household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), is barely mentioned in Egypt. Under Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party, Egypt was backed by wealthy Qatar, and Morsi's Salafist coalition partners were particularly hostile to the Shi'ite Muslims. In March of this year, Salafists prevented the arrival in Cairo of the first commercial flight to Egypt from Tehran in three decades. Before the first batch of Iranian tourists arrived, Salafists successfully lobbied the Ministry of Tourism to ban Iranians from Cairo — which is home to many venerated Shiite shrines — and steer them south to Luxor and Aswan.
Ahmed RassemNafees, an Egyptian Shi'ite Muslim leader, points out the irony of Egypt banning the Iranians from Cairo and the al-Husain Mosque — turning away a potential flood of religious pilgrims at a time when Egypt's vital tourism industry is at rock bottom. Nafees, a professor at Mansoura University medical school, said that among all the religious minorities, the Shi'ite Muslims produce a particularly visceral reaction among some Salafists. He said the Salafists are scared of Shi'ite Muslim belief once again gaining a foothold in Egypt. "They don't like the Christians, but they're not scared of them," he said. "They're terrified [of the followers of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt] because they know Egypt used to be a Shi'ite Muslims country."
Some of that intense Salafist antipathy was on display in the wake of the Mosque's closure on Ashura. Adel Nasser, chairman of the Salafi Dawa group, praised the military government's decision, telling al-Masryal-Youm newspaper that the closure of a house of worship is a small act of corruption to prevent a bigger one – that is, allowing Shi'ite Muslims to practice their rituals, which are unaccepted to him and his party.
Not all Salafists feel as strongly, of course. But when Shi'ite Muslims are concerned, the loudest and most strident Salafist voices tend to hold sway both before and after Morsi's downfall. The Morsi era concluded with a violent low-point for the followers of the Prophet's Blessed Household in Egypt. Ten days before Morsi was ousted, a mob formed in the village of Abu Musallem, just outside of Cairo, murdering four Shi'ite Muslims, including the prominent religious leaders, Sheikh Mohammad Hassan Shehata.
The exact spark that set off the assaults remains unclear, but area residents told the local media that Salafist sheikhs had been railing against the village's Shi'ite Muslim residents for weeks. The assault came shortly after Morsi appeared at a raucous rally in support of the terrorists trying to destabilize in Syria sharing the stage with Salafist preachers who vilified Shi'ite Muslims. Six people have been arrested for their part in the attacks.But Morsi's downfall doesn't seem to have helped conditions for Egypt's Shi'ite Muslims that much. After his ousting in a the July 3 military coup, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates replaced Qatar as Egypt's primary regional patrons. But like Qatar, both countries are deeply resentful of the long suppressed Shi'ite Muslims.
Nafees predicted gloomy times in Egypt for thefollowers of the Blessed Household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). While Egypt's long-suffering 10% minority Coptic Christians are looking forward to unprecedented freedoms from the still-in-progress constitution, he doesn't expect nearly the same sort of protections or rights for his own people. If anything he fears they have become low-hanging fruit for bigots in a country already bubbling with sectarian tensions."We have become the new scapegoat," he said. "Now that the Brotherhood is gone, I think things will get better for the Christians and other minorities. But not for us."But despite the Ashura setback, there may be some cause for optimism among Egypt's Shi'ite Muslims. The Abu Mussalem killings horrified most Egyptians and may have increased sympathy among other Egyptians for the Shi'ite Muslims. A senior official at Cairo's al-Azhar University said he regretted the way the Ashura issue was handled. Speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic, he said: "They're Muslims and they have a right to worship. It's clear we have a lot of work to do on this issue in particular."
Early reports from the constitutional committee indicate strong support for wide-ranging language that grants full right to worship to all faiths. "Freedom of worship is very important to us, and to me personally," said Mohammed Abla, a famous painter and member of the "Committee of 50" currently drafting the constitution. Abla, a Sunni and a member of the rights and freedoms subcommittee, said that one of the definite changes coming in the next constitution is the elimination of an Ottoman Empire-era law that remained in practice through the Mubarak years requiring presidential approval for any church construction or renovation—a sign of the drafters' supposedly more benign, open-minded views regarding religion.But whatever the final language in the constitution, any law will have to be properly acknowledged and enforced by authorities who are subject to the same social pressures that led to the Ashura closure decision. Hashemi and his community might have to wait until next Ashura to test the waters of tolerance once again.
source : irib
