Islam: A State Ideology

Islam is much more than a religious creed. It is an all-encompassing ideology. Islam establishes a universal order for the whole of human society, which is expressed principally through Islamic law - i.e., Sharia law. Personal morality, matters of faith, economics, politics and family life are all governed by Islamic law. Its main source is the Qur'an, but to that is added the large body of material known as the Sunna. The Sunna is based on the Hadith - the traditionally accepted stories of the acts and works of Muhammad. In its classical form Islamic law, otherwise known as the Sharia, is the unmodified body of writings and commentaries on the Qur'an and Sunna compiled by the founders of several of the many ancient schools of law which arose after Muhammad's death. Only four of these ancient schools survive in the Sunni legal traditions.

Until the 19th century classical Islamic law stood unchallenged in Egypt. Since then successive rulers have gradually introduced codified civil law as a companion to Islamic law. Much of this new codified civil law was at variance with Islamic law. Egyptian rulers from the great 19th century modernizer Muhammad Ali (1805-1848) to Mubarak have felt compelled to introduce such legislation to slow the economic and political decline of Egypt in relation to the western world. The shift away from classical Islamic traditions reached its apogee under Nasser (1952-1970), which marked the high tide of what Muslim traditionalists regard as "secularism" in Egypt. Notwithstanding these developments, the foundations of Egyptian society remain fundamentally Islamic.

The Islamic basis of society is reflected in the Islamic character of the Egyptian state and the ideology of the present regime. Even under Nasser the National Charter of 1962 confirmed Islam as a major ingredient of the state ideology along with socialism and Arab nationalism. Prompted by the failure of Nasser's ideology to provide a durable basis for the regime, his successor, Anwar Sadat, cast aside socialism and based the ideology of his regime more solidly on orthodox Islam.

Sadat began the process of rectifying discrepancies between principles of Islamic law and civil law through an Islamization program devised by his Muslim fundamentalist allies. President Mubarak, who identifies himself much more with Muslim modernists than with doctrinaire clerics, clings to Islam as an ideology of state. But he has tried to contain the powerful subversive forces of militant Muslim extremism by means of a carrot and stick policy, and has so far successfully stalled the full implementation of Islamic law. The Islamic fundamentalist movement, including both revolutionary and pro-regime tendencies, rejects the government's claim that Egypt is a genuine Islamic state, citing the many discrepancies between the country's civil law and traditional Islamic law. The strength of this opposition obliges the Mubarak regime to prove continually its Islamic credentials. Thus the government faces and often succumbs to pressure to maintain the detrimental control and regulation of Egypt's Christian community that is inherent in Islamic law.

Sadat marked the beginning of his re-Islamization program by presenting a new constitution in 1971 which designated Islamic law as "a principal source of legislation". In 1980 the National Assembly accepted an amendment to the constitution which declared Islam to be the "religion of state" and acknowledged the Sharia as "the principal source of legislation". The constitutional changes were matched by a government sponsored program to bring gradually the whole of Egypt's civil law into harmony with Islamic law. The ruling National Democratic Party in its 1978 manifesto announced that "Islamic laws are not merely guiding principles for social affairs, nor do they represent only a moral obligation, but they are a constitutional, social and political prop." Under Sadat the government was publicly committed to the introduction of Sharia law once the process of codification was complete.

In 1977 the Sadat government presented Islamization bills to the National Assembly, which, amongst other things, called for the death penalty for those who abandoned the Muslim faith for Christianity or other religions and for those who encouraged Muslims to do so; a prohibition on the return to the Christian faith for divorcees who converted to Islam for the purpose of marriage and flogging for drunkards. The government withdrew the bills in the face of strong opposition from the Coptic Orthodox community and the West. The National Assembly's approval of the amendment to the Constitution which changed the Shariah's status from "a" to "the" principle source of legislation was the major outcome of this debate. The Mubarak government signaled its unwillingness to preside over the complete and immediate introduction of Sharia law on May 5, 1985 when it succeeded in bringing about the defeat of a motion to this effect in the National Assembly. While the government refrains from implementing Sharia law in to, it applies ostensibly secular statute law in the spirit of Sharia law as a means of regulating the country's Christian community.

Top | Back to list | Back  

In May 1980 the National Assembly approved a bill on "The Protection of Values from Shameful Conduct". It was designed to protect Muslim sensibilities. Punishable offences include opposing religious doctrines and inciting young people to renege on religious and moral values. In 1982 the Penal Code was amended to make:

"inciting civil unrest by exploiting religion with the intent to threaten national unity by means of propaganda or approving extremist views expressed verbally, in writing or in any other way; and showing disdain for or denigrating a heavenly religion (Islam, Christianity and Judaism - ed.) or its adherents offences affecting the security of the state and punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years or by a fine of between 500 and 1,000 pounds". (Article 98 (w) of Penal Code)

These broad and ill-defined laws are used by the government to imprison revolutionary Muslim extremists. But they are also used to restrict the right of Christians to question publicly and peacefully Muslim doctrine and practice. In practice the state generally tolerates the public denigration of Christianity, but intervenes when Islam is challenged publicly.

Egypt's Constitution stipulates that a state of emergency may only be declared in case of war, foreign invasion, civil strife or natural disaster. Yet a state of emergency has existed in the country for virtually all of the past forty years. The most recent Emergency Security Law, which was passed by the National Assembly in response to the murder of President Sadat in 1981 by militant Muslims, enables the state prosecutor on the order of the President or the Interior Minister to imprison "suspected persons or those who endanger public order or security" for up to sixty days without charge before having to justify the detention before a special security court. Once released, either by order of a security court or after the expiry of 60 days, detainees may be immediately rearrested and imprisoned for another 60 days. The cycle of arrest and imprisonment without charge or trial may continue indefinitely. In 1990 over 1,600 people were rounded up on the basis of the Emergency Security Law. Amnesty International estimates that only 5% of detainees are ever tried in court.

Top | Back to list | Back  

Both Amnesty International and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights have provided extensive documentation on the use of torture against those detained on the basis of emergency legislation.

"Political detainees have been blindfolded, stripped of their clothes and suspended from their wrists, bound or handcuffed together, sometimes in contorted positions, from the tops of doors or from barred windows. Victims have described how they have been forced to lie on their backs, their hands and feet bound together, a chair forced up under their armpits, and another keeping their knees apart to restrict the body's involuntary spasm as electric shocks were applied repeatedly to their nipples and genitals. Between torture sessions they have been made to stand in unnatural positions, often with arms and legs outstretched for hours on end and beaten if they moved. Some have been sexually abused. In addition to physical torture, they have been threatened with murder and rape, told that they would become insane or sexually impotent as a result of their torture, and in some cases threatened that their wives would be tortured or raped in front of them. They have been placed in cells where they could hear the screams of others being tortured, and kept blindfolded throughout in order to prevent them from identifying their torturers." (Egypt: Ten Years of Torture, Amnesty International, London, October 1991. p. 1-2)

The above mentioned repressive laws and torture are used mostly against Islamic militants who advocate violence against the current regime. But they are also used as a weapon against Christians, especially converts from Islam, who profess their faith in public. These laws are generally not used to control the plentiful anti-Christian propaganda issued by state-sponsored organizations or the other Islamic organizations that are not seeking the violent overthrow of the government.

Notwithstanding Sadat's and Mubarak efforts to inject the law with a greater Islamic content, there continue to be many anomalies between Egyptian civil law and the Sharia according to its classical formulations - anomalies that a commission of the National Assembly has been authorized to rectify. The Egyptian government claims the differences are not great. In the opinion of the present Chief Judge of the Egyptian Supreme Security Court, Said Al-Ashmawy, "Egyptian law is actually Islamic law." This view is hotly contested by the Mubarak regime's militant Muslim opponents who demand nothing short of the introduction of the whole of Sharia law. Though the law in Egypt is far from identical to traditional Islamic law, the latter continues to co-exist with civil law in Egypt and exercises a growing influence on all aspects of the legal process. Moreover, principles of traditional Islamic law that are at odds with civil law are often applied by private citizens without reference to a court. The Egyptian government has recently acknowledged to the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights that such traditions as lex talionis - i.e., the law of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" - and the murder of women for violating Islamic custom are often applied in Upper Egypt where, in the government's view, they are "a more powerful influence than the provisions of positive law". This is also the case regarding the application of Islamic law and custom to Christians.

Top | Back to list | Back