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As Christians celebrate Christmas, Cairo bookstores and news stands offer readers a special glimpse of the most recent specimen of sectarianism against an intellectual backdrop. A book which carries the name of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, affiliated to the Ministry of Religious Endowments as publisher, and sells at the heavily subsidised price of one Egyptian pound, denounces Christians as apostates who could legitimately be killed.

Eternity in hell

The book is number 142 of the monthly series Qadaya Islamiya (Islamic causes), is entitled The sedition of takfeer, or apostasy between Shias, Wahabis, and Sufis, and authored by Mohamed Emara. The main topic of the book is apostasy, with the author denouncing the practice of an Islamic sect declaring other sects infidels or apostates. He sponsors the view that Muslims, be they Sunni, Shia, Wahabi, or any other, are not apostates as long as they recognise the Prophet Mohamed and his message. But, Emara goes on to write on page 31 of the book, “the real apostates are well-known and obvious. They are the Christians and Jews, who deny our Prophet and his message. Apostasy is a sharie or Islamic legal ruling that warrants spilt blood [killing the apostate] on earth and an eternity in hell.” ...

The book sold out in a matter of 24 hours; readers who searched for it the following day could not find it. This leaves us with serious questions that beg answers. Is the Ministry of Endowments, at whose head sits the enlightened Dr Mahmoud Handi Zaqzouq, indeed responsible for publishing the book? Is the State, whose budget is financed by Christians as well as Muslims, subsidising books which propagate such detrimental thought? Watani awaits a reply from the ministry of religious endowments, and asks: are we to wonder how fanaticism and extremism gain ground?