| Sayyid Al-Qemany | |
| Birth Date: | 13 March 1947 |
| Birth Place: | Al-Wasta, Beni Suef, Egypt |
| Death Place: | Cairo, Egypt |
| Education: | Bachelor in philosophy |
| Occupation: | Academic writer, thinker |
Sayyid Al-Qemany (Arabic: سيد محمد القمني, also al-Qimni, 13 March 1947 – 6 February 2022) was an Egyptian secular writer and thinker. His works emphasize the importance of critical thinking, and he was an opponent of Islamic fundamentalism, supporting separation of religion and state, and tolerance. In 2009, he won the Egyptian Culture Ministry's prize for achievement in the social sciences, a cash award of 200,000 Egyptian pounds (about $US36,000).[1] [2] A judicial and media campaign was launched calling for the prize to be withdrawn by those who claimed Al-Qemany was a heretic who had harmed Islam and Muslims with his writings.[1] [2]
Al-Qemany studied philosophy at Ain Shams University.[3] After graduation in 1969, he went to teach philosophy in the Gulf States. He later studied at Saint Joseph University in Lebanon, then he started to write his research for the University of Southern California, supervised by Fouad Zakariyya from the Kuwait University.[3]
Al-Qemany viewed the Quran as a historical script to be applied in understanding the ancient history of mankind, and contended that it is a legitimate tool to study it from a historical perspective using the same scientific tools and criteria that are employed for other disciplines.[4]
Former Egyptian Mufti Nasr Farid Wasil called the decision to award Al-Qemany the prize "a crime against Egypt's Muslim identity."[2] The Islamic association Jabhat 'Ulama Al-Azhar stated that Al-Qemany "has openly blasphemed in a manner that does not lend itself to [any other] interpretation." The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya also attacked Sayyed Al-Qemany[5] Dar Al-Ifta, Egypt's official fatwa-issuing body, headed by Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa issued a fatwa stating in part:
The Muslims [believe] unanimously that whoever curses the Prophet or slanders Islam removes himself from the fold of Islam and [from the community] of Muslims, and deserves punishment in this world and torment in the world to come... The statements [from Al-Qimni's writings] quoted by the [individual] who requested the fatwa are heretical, regardless of who wrote them; they remove their author from the fold of Islam... and [also] constitute a crime according to Article 98 of [Egypt's] penal code. If these depraved, loathsome, and invalid statements were indeed made by a specific individual, then this individual should be convicted rather than awarded a prize, and punished to the full extent of the law...[2] [6]
Sheikh Youssef Al-Badri accused him of "deconstructing Islam using eloquent sugar-coated attacks ... more fatal than Salman Rushdie".[1] Al-Qemany replied that Badri was accusing him of atheism. "Islamic scholars do not want the Muslim to use his God-given brain! They want a submissive and obedient Muslim who refers to them in the slightest details of his life."[1]
Egyptian liberals came to Al-Qemany's defence and called on the government to defend him against accusations of heresy "which are tantamount to incitement to murder."[7] [8] Human rights activists, academics, and journalists issued a petition of solidarity with him.[2]
In 2016, public opinion was agitated after forwarding the public prosecutor a communication filed by the advocator Khaled Al-Masry against Sayyid Al-Qemany on the charge of “contempt of the Islamic religion and insulting the companions." It was reported that he participated in a symposium that was held in the Adhoc organization in Belgium, involving not only an insult to the Divine, the Prophet, and his companions, but also expressions of contempt for the Islamic religion.[9] [10] [11]
Al-Qemany died in Cairo on 6 February 2022, at the age of 74.[12]