WOEFUL TALE OF EGYPT

‘Tis a woeful tale of Egypt, I tell:
Glorious land of the Pharoahs,
Renowned for its magnificent tombs,
Its unequalled pyramids, its decorative flumes,
A new force is among them, new foes,
In the font of western civilization’s citadel!

This saga is the story of one man:
A professor of Islamic studies at Cairo University,
He had a decade-long dispute*
With Dr. Abdel-Sabour Shahin whose repute,
As an extreme Muslim fundamentalist, no diversity
Allowed, he espoused a strict interpretation of the Koran.

It all commenced in the year nineteen ninety-three:
When reading his paper one morning, he found,
Dr. Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid read that a blasphemy case,
On what, he wanted to know, had the accusation been based,
He was brought to trial, found safe and sound,
Accused of being an apostate, of breaking the law of apostasy!

It began in nineteen ninety-two when his promotion:
His promotion to full professor was denied,
Two academics praised his Koranic research,
But were swayed by a third who like a pulpit was perched,
Vehemently, opposed to everything on Zeid’s side,
This colleague, Shahin, caused quite a commotion!

At this time the newest victim of Islamic militants:
The only Egyptian Nobel Prize winner for literature,
Naguib Mahfouz had been shot in nineteen ninety-four,
While fellow writer Farag Foda was murdered before,
In nineteen ninety-three nearly half a million endured,
Friday prayers where Zeid was declared a heretic at a glance!

At the Giza Primary Court, the trial took place:
This unassuming, private, timid scholar who taught,*
Who had studied the works of Aristotle, Averroes, *
Kant, Marx and Engels but didn’t advocate the overthrows,
Of any government, just one feud he fought,
With Dr. Shanin, who challenged him to his face.

Egypt had no apostasy law so the trial was held under family law:
Having written and published twelve treatises, twelve books,
He was now accused of being blasphemous,
No one could he truly trust,
He was accosted by strange noises and dirty looks
He didn’t understand everything he saw!

Nasr Abu Zeid was being sued for divorce:
Not by his wife, who he had married late in life,
At age forty-nine, a fellow professor, she,
Ebtehal Younes, fifteen years younger than he,
Widely traveled daughter of an Egyptian diplomat, his wife,
Slim, attractive, outspoken feminist, a fiery force.

The case was based on a ninth-century Shariah law called hisbah:*
Any Muslim may sue before a court,
If he believes that Islam is being harmed,
If he is just greatly alarmed,
Poor Zeid was like a ship with no port,
His wife remained loyal to him, he thought with a sigh!

The case was brought by a group of Islamic lawyers acting:
On his wife’s behalf, at first without her knowledge,
And later without her consent,
They were just hell bent,
On punishing Zeid for his writings, his books they pledged
To burn, he to be banished from teaching, have no backing!

Muslim women may not marry outside of their faith:
If blasphemous Zeid’s writings were duly deemed,
His happy marriage would be dissolved,
These Islamic extremist were deeply involved,
In Zeid’s personal life to an extent that it seemed,
They were crucifying him for his professional belief!

Some of the defense attorneys hadn’t heard of hisbah before the trial:
These religious fanatics thought it was their Islamic duty,
To defend Ebtehal against her will,
Devoted disciples of Dr. Shahin, they were instilled,
With zealot passion and fervor, with bizarre prudity,
How could this happen on the banks of the Nile!

Before the trial, sheikhs began at prayers on Friday:
Backed by the power of the distinguished al-Azhar,
The oldest university in the world,
Zeid’s enemies with their slogans unfurled,
Apostate, Repent, repent, they created a war,
These men who had never read his books were fully in the fray.

In January of nineteen ninety-four, Zeid received a reprieve:
In the lower court he was found innocent,
But in Egyptian law, unlike American,
An innocent verdict can be appealed, there is no ban,
The Court of Appeals, what a horrible precedent,
Found him guilty, a guilty verdict did he receive.

He was found guilty of propagating the view:*
That certain Koranic references to angels, devils and genies,
Should not be taken literally
But as metaphors they were meant to be
He challenged the Koran as the word of god, as it he sees
Over him and his case, a cold wind blew!

The court had no jurisfiction to declare anyone an apostate:
No apostasy law did Egypt have at that time,
Zeid had convicted himself, three judges found,
Lost his right to be married to a Muslim woman, he was bound
With his writings that were treated as committing a crime,
He had to abide by the court order to divorce his mate!

The Court of Cassation upheld the verdict of the Court of Appeals:
Although the Constitution enshrined freedom of belief,
There was a difference between belief that was spoken
And belief in the mind, this was a token
That the Constitution wasn’t the law of the land, no relief
Was coming for Abu Zeid, there would be no deals!

A group of Islamic scholars from al-Azhar called on the government:
To carry out the punishment for apostasy,
According to orthodox Shariah law the punishment
Was death, death was the verdict sent,
Zeid with his wife fled to the Netherlands, fleeingly,
To Leiden University, to escape death, they went!


*Portrait of Egypt by Mary Anne Weaver