Farag Foda

Farag Foda (Egyptian Arabic: فرج فوده, IPA: [ˈfɑɾɑɡ ˈfoːdæ] or [-ˈfuːdæ]; 1946 – 8 June 1992), sometimes spelled as Faraj Fawda, was an important Egyptian professor, writer, columnist, and human rights activist.

Biography

Foda was born near Damietta in the Nile Delta. He worked as professor of agriculture. He wrote numerous books and contributed as a columnist to the Egyptian magazine October.

Based in Cairo, Foda was noted for his critical articles and trenchant satires about Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt. In many newspaper articles, he pointed out weak points in Islamist ideology. Shortly before he was assassinated, Foda had mocked an ongoing dispute among ulamas about sex in paradise. That discussion had ensued after Egypt's most popular preacher, Abd al-Hamid Kishk, had told "his audience that Muslims who entered paradise would enjoy eternal erections and the company of young boys draped in earrings and necklaces."

Assassination

On 8 June 1992, Foda was shot to death after leaving his office by two Islamic fundamentalists. His son and other bystanders were seriously wounded in the attack. The jihadist group Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya claimed responsibility.

Before his death, Farag Foda had been accused of blasphemy by Al-Azhar. The Al-Azhar ulamas had thereby adopted a previous fatwā by Sheikh al-Azhar, Jadd al-Haqq, accusing Foda and other secularist writers of being "enemies of Islam". Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya explicitly referred to the Al-Azhar fatwā when claiming responsibility. An Al-Azhar scholar, Mohammed al-Ghazali, later asserted as a witness before the court that it was not wrong to kill an apostate. Al-Ghazali said: "The killing of Farag Foda was in fact the implementation of the punishment against an apostate which the imam (the Islamic leader in Egypt) has failed to implement." 8 of the 13 Islamists accused in the murder were subsequently acquitted.

One of the participants in Foda's murder, Abu El'Ela Abdrabu, was released from prison in 2012 under Mohamed Morsi's government. Abdrabu has been interviewed by Tony Khalifa in one of his shows and showed no regret, claiming that he acted under the name of executing sharia law. Abdrabu also declared that he wouldn't apologize to Foda's daughter, allegedly to avoid her getting "hurt" by knowing that her father was a "kafir" (infidel).

Books

Farag Foda has written 12 books in Arabic:

• The Absent Truth
• Discussion on Sharia
• The Harbinger
• Were is Sectarianism Going?
• Before The Fall – 1st Print 1985. 2nd Print 1995
• Discussion on Secularism – 1st Print 1993. 2nd Print 2005
• The Warning – 1st Print 1989. 2nd Print 2005
• The Played With – 1st Print 1985. 2nd Print 2004
• To Be or Not to Be – 1st Print 1988. 2nd Print 2004
• Pleasure Marriage – 1st Print 1990. 2nd Print 2004
• The Game
• So the words will not be in the air

Further reading

• Ana Belén Soage (2007). "Faraj Fawda, or the Cost of Freedom of Expression". Middle East Review of International Affairs 11 (2): 26–33.