Last year Watani twice tackled the ridicule of Christianity and Christians in books published by State-owned corporations that are financed through the money of taxpayers, Christians as well as Muslims. The first of these books was The sedition of takfeer, or apostasy , authored by Mohamed Emara, and published in December 2006 by the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs which is affiliated to the Ministry of Religious Endowments. The second was Evidence of the Greatness of Mohamed’s Message and Prophesies of it in the books of the People of the Book by Mohamed al-Sadat and published by the General Egyptian Book Organisation in July 2007. In both cases Watani received an apology from the author or publisher and the book was recalled off the shelves and later reprinted with the derision of Christianity removed.
Mohamed prophesied?
Anyone who thought this was the end to State-sponsored derision of Christianity and Christians had better think again. Dar al-Gomhuriya Press, a State-owned publishing house, recently issued Message to the World; Mohamed, peace be upon him; “We have Shielded you from the Defamers” by Abdel-Razeq Qinawi. In the introduction by history professor Abdullah Gamal Eddin, he describes Qinawi as no expert in Islamic Studies, but that he seriously undertook such studies out of pure interest and subsequently published several works on the topic.
In 175 pages the book claims to be a direct response to the reprinting of the Danish cartoons which defamed Mohamed. But instead of confining itself to defending the prophet, the book follows a trend which appears to be in vogue nowadays and goes on to attack the Bible by claiming that it is a misquotation of an original book which prophesied the coming of Mohamed. To prove his point the author introduces hypotheses that are rife with errors concerning Christ and the Bible, alleging that several verses—in that same Bible he claims to be a misquotation of the original—are prophesies of Mohamed. In a chapter written by Gamal Zakariya Ibrahim he claims Jesus was a Jew who adhered to the practice of respecting the Sabbath, even though Jesus was Himself repeatedly regarded by the Jews as a heretic who did not respect the Sabbath.
A full chapter of the book is concerned with citing the stories of Muslim converts and how they found their fulfilment in Islam as opposed to their former Christianity.
What freedom
Watani wishes to make it clear it has no qualms about printing such a blatant promotion of Islam, nor such erroneous analyses of the Bible. All this belongs to the realm of the freedom of expression which Watani staunchly defends. But freedom of expression goes both ways; Christian scholars should also be given the opportunity to promote Christianity and publish their interpretation of the Qur’an in State-sponsored publications. If Dar al-Gomhuriya, whose board is chaired by Mohamed Abu-Hadid and whose series of books is under the chief editorship of al-Sayed Ali Hashem, is willing to do that then there would be no harm done. But if, for State-owned institutions, freedom of expression applies to Islamic viewpoints to the exclusion of all other perspectives, it is a seriously flawed freedom or no freedom at all. In which case such publications as the book in question amount to nothing short of a step on the road of spreading the culture of hatred.