Cairo - I performed Friday prayers last week at a mosque near my house. The preacher was unmistakably a Salafist (diehard Muslim); he was wearing a grey galabiyya and white skullcap—similar but much larger than the kippa - and sported a messy beard. His voice was no less than a howl emerging from strong lungs. I have seen this particular preacher for several weeks now. He likes to scold us for not being good Muslims and rebuke us for adopting liberal thoughts from the kafir (unbelievers) West, exported to Muslim communities to distract their attention from Prophet Mohamed's teachings. Climbing up on the podium, the Salafist preacher threw 'Salam Aleikum' at our faces. We were sitting and he was standing. First he spoke softly, but then his tone became louder and more aggressive. For many weeks I have kept asking my neighbours whether this preacher entertained the wrong notions about our religious sincerity and devotion. He treats us as if we did not deserve our identity as Muslims, he probably doubts that we perform the five daily prayers. We fast in the holy month of Ramadan, give handouts to the poor and are committed to zakat (alms). Many of my neighbours are labouring under the preacher's suspicions and piercing looks, although they have performed hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. Unlike him, we do not embrace hostile attitudes towards our opponents at the workplace or where we live, nor do we act like him and make slanderous remarks about other people. Unlike him, we are not trapping ourselves in the mosque round the clock to live on bounty deducted from huge donations, which he and his colleagues control. But although we are regular faces in the mosque during Friday prayers, this preacher stubbornly refuses, for unknown reasons, to change his mind about us. It fills us with dismay that chatting with him about religious topics after the prayers has not improved the perception of his audience. Anyway, last Friday, this Salafist preacher—true to form—bombarded us with several texts from the holy Qur'an, which illustrate the tenets of the Muslim Sharia. He appeared to have selected these texts quite carefully, as they also rightly explain why Muslim worshippers should abide by them. I suspected—may God forgive me—that the preacher's intentions were more serious than ever before. My suspicions immediately came true. He vehemently criticised liberals and secularists (the unchallenged champions of the January 25 Revolution) for competing so brazenly with true Muslims (Salafists and Muslim Brothers) to seize Egypt's presidency. He warned thunderously that the liberals and secularists conspired to replace Muslim Sharia with a Western democracy. "But this conspiracy by the enemy of Islam will soon fizzle out," he roared. "The true Muslims, as represented only by the Salafists and Muslim Brothers, will not allow these kafir to reach their devilish goals," he threatened. Having reached this point, he exhorted us to vote either for the Salafist or MB candidate, and insisted that these two candidates alone would champion the Muslim Sharia and defend it against its enemies in the West and at home. We were shocked when he reminded the faithful that they would be condemned if they supported a different candidate. Worse, he warned us that we would compromise our faith if we wanted a non-Salafist or non-MB president. "True Muslims should rally behind a candidate introduced by the Salafists or the MB," he preached. "Otherwise, you will deserve divine punishment in this life and the hereafter for ignoring Allah's instructions." For this aggressive preacher, the rule of Muslim Sharia in Egypt is a matter of life and death. He actually declared war on Friday. I wanted to remind him that just like his favourite candidates, others competing in the presidential race were equally good Muslims—and perhaps better Muslims than him, since their religious identities and qualifications perfectly met the Salafists' strict standards. The long messy beard and the aggressive howls of accusations were the only exceptions. To the best of my knowledge we do not live in a state run by kafir—or Copts. Since Islam came to Egypt, it has always been governed by Muslim rulers. Egypt's identity as a Muslim state has never been compromised, not even during the periods when the nation was under foreign occupation. The preacher's way of talking and his threats made my neighbours and I think that the Salafists and Muslim Brothers were determined to take Egypt. They want to set the clock back to the dawn of Islam. They want to impose their version of Islam, and those who won't comply will be condemned as renegades. When the Muslims have been converted to Salafist Islam, the Copts will be next. Other friends of mine, who happened to perform Friday prayers last week in mosques run by Salafists and Muslim Brothers, were given the same belligerent sermon.
