To many Egyptians fed up with the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most appealing aspects of President Sisi has been his outspokenness concerning the need for a more modern, moderate Islam. Yet what has he done to realize this goal since becoming president? “Absolutely nothing,” says one prominent Egyptian journalist, Ibrahim Eissa. Speaking recently on his TV show, Eissa said:
What is the position of the Egyptian government concerning religious radicalization among the religious parties? And now I specifically refer to the position of President Sisi concerning this matter. Five months have passed since he became president, after his amazing showing at elections. Okay. The president has, more than once, indicated the need for a renewal of religious discourse… But he has not done a single thing, President Sisi, to renew religious discourse. Nothing at all.
If anything, it appears the Sisi government has done the reverse, for instance, allowing Salfis to return to the podium.
Once, the Arabs and Arabized peoples were secure in the knowledge that, whatever was going on in Europe, they were better because they had the final and perfected religion. That is, they had Allah. Then the European (and American) forces showed up with superior weapons and organization and went where they wanted and took what they pleased. That is, they behaved dominantly over those that Allah made supreme. Imagine the shock to the Muslim world. They thought long and hard and decided that incorporating Western organizations and technologies with Islam was the answer. So then we saw Islam and Nationalism; Islam and Science; Islam and Western Military Training; Islam and Technology; Islam and Communism and so on and so on. That Islam might be the problem was never considered. They tried to meet the challenge of the West by pairing Western concepts with Islam. When all these failed or least did not succeed to anyone’s satisfaction, a new wave of thinkers came forth and said, “Islam is the Answer” (the answer to the question,”Why are our countries so screwed up?). That is, Muslims must return to a pure and unpaired form of Islam. For if you have God, how can you go wrong? So President Sissi is plenty Muslim and is probably sympathetic to many Salafist groups. But President Sissi belongs to the Islam and Nationalism branch by virtue of his background in the Army. He doesn’t want secular humanists, the Coptic Christians to diminish the Islamic character of Egypt; nor does he want the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islam only branch to diminish his honor in being a general and president in a Western style state.