An Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood fatwa prohibiting Muslims from wishing Christians a “Happy Easter” has revealed the insidious underbelly of the Muslim Brotherhood’s plan for assimilating Egyptians into accepting sharia. The Brotherhood has offered a vague delineation of what sharia means by touting a jurisprudential doctrine known as istislah, which asserts that Islamic legal principles should be interpreted to achieve “societal benefits,” thus clouding perception of how the Brotherhood would “implement the sharia.” But when it comes to religious differences, look out.
The fatwa is quite clear: Brotherhood leader Abdel Rahman al-Barr quotes the Koran to support his contention that Muslims should only greet Christians on their holidays “so long as this greeting does not come at the expense of our [Islamic] religion.” Muslims cannot wish Christians a “Happy Easter,” because they don’t believe Jesus was killed or crucified.”
The obfuscation used by the Brotherhood was in evidence when Atlantic writer Eric Trager asked Brotherhood leader Farid Ismail in July 2012 how Mohamed Morsi would implement sharia. Ismail responded: “It means peace, security, equality, citizenship, freedom, and giving rights for people despite their religion or ethics or color or sex.”
Kafr el-Sheikh Governor Saad al-Husseini has said, “Everything I’m doing is sharia! Justice is sharia. War against corruption is sharia. Security is sharia. … Improving the economy is the sharia. This is the sharia. To preserve the dignity of Egyptians is the sharia. … Day and night we are with poor before rich. This is sharia!”
As former Brotherhood spokesman Ibrahim al-Houdaiby has said, sharia “focuses on recruitment and empowering the organization while postponing all intellectual questions.” And the Brotherhood’s nebulous presentation of sharia can justify any action they take as Islamic, which means any opposition must be comprised of enemies of Islam who are thereby deserving of punishment.
Barr has said:
When we implement the sharia, we will first try to ease the concerns of the people, implementing [it] through cooperation that safeguards freedom and dignity and accomplishes justice. Then, if someone comes and breaches this, punishments will be brought against him for not accepting this, for the dignity of life and [based on] a correct [Islamic] education.
This is in evidence already; more journalists have been arrested for insulting Morsi and insulting Islam in ten months than were arrested under Hosni Mubarak in 30 years.
When the curtain is pulled away from sharia, the religious intolerance is only too clear.
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