Headlines, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa, Religion

RIGHTS-EGYPT: Invoking Religion Against Liberals

Cam McGrath

CAIRO, Oct 19 2009 (IPS) - Self-appointed guardians of public morality are invoking an ancient instrument of Islamic jurisprudence against those whose ideas they deem immoral or heretical – or simply to gain fame.

“We are concerned about the huge rise in the number of hisba cases in recent years,” says Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI).

Hisba is a lawsuit filed by an individual who volunteers to defend society from anyone whose words or deeds he considers harmful to Islam. Introduced to Egypt in the eighth century, this obscure legal instrument empowers Muslims to hold their fellow citizens, and even the state, accountable for upholding religious virtue.

Egypt’s constitution permits the application of hisba ostensibly to encourage civic engagement for the public good. Yet rights groups claim that in the past decade the government has permitted the abuse of hisba legislation to appease conservative factions and to put pressure on the regime’s opponents.

“About 95 percent of the cases that reach court are against writers, artists and journalists who are critical of the government,” says Eid. “The consequence is a prevailing atmosphere of fear, where people are afraid to express their ideas and opinions.”

Secular author Sayed El-Qimni, telecom mogul Naguib Sawiris and feminist writer Nawal El-Saadawi are the latest high-profile targets of hisba lawsuits.

Conservative lawyers and clerics have declared El-Qimni’s writing on religion and mythology blasphemous, and have filed hisba suits calling for the government to revoke the author’s state literary prize and strip him of his Egyptian nationality.

Sawiris enflamed the wrath of Islamist lawyer Nizar Ghorab when during an appearance on a television talk show last month he criticised the constitutional article that makes Sharia (Islamic law) the basis for the country’s legal system. Ghorab accused the Christian businessman of publicly disparaging Islam, and demanded his imprisonment.

Another lawyer, Nabih El-Wahsh, filed a hisba lawsuit against El-Saadawi after she founded a civil organisation to promote the separation of state and religion. He charged her with inciting contempt of Islam, and is seeking a jail sentence.

It is not the first time that El-Wahsh has invoked hisba against the prominent feminist. In 2001, he failed in an attempt to have El-Saadawi and her husband, Sherif Hetata, forcibly divorced on the grounds that he deemed the secular author to be an atheist. Muslims are forbidden from marrying non- believers, he told the court.

El-Saadawi has also been named in hisba cases that sought to have her books banned and citizenship revoked. Despite the barrage of attacks, she insists there is nothing personal behind them.

“These are mediocre lawyers…sensationalists who have exploited the situation of the increasing power of Islamic fundamentalism and the weakening of the government in the face of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood,” she told IPS. “They don’t just take me to court, they take everybody to court.”

The problem, she says, is the government’s complicity in the legal action against its most vocal critics. Legislation introduced in 1996 requires that the public prosecutor alone must decide which cases are referred to the courts.

“The public prosecutor is very selective in that sometimes he refers a case and sometimes he doesn’t,” says El-Saadawi. “Clearly he gets a green light from above. The public prosecutor never refers hisba cases against ministers or powerful government officials to court, but he always refers cases of thinkers and writers who are critical of the government, like myself.”

There are no official figures on the number of hisba lawsuits filed each year, but rights groups are certain the number is growing. ANHRI’s legal department documented over 600 hisba cases last year before losing count.

“We hear about the famous cases, but there are hundreds more besides these, consuming the effort of judges,” says Eid.

A handful of conservative lawyers and clerics are responsible for the majority of hisba lawsuits. Some have made careers out of it.

El-Wahsh has filed more than 1,000 hisba cases over the past decade. Other lawyers have risen to prominence by taking high-profile free thinkers to court.

“It doesn’t cost a penny to file a hisba case, and when you file one against someone famous for sure you’ll be interviewed and appear on TV,” Eid says. “These lawyers earn money from this fame, so some of them are filing over 200 cases a year. They know the court will refuse most of them, but it’s good propaganda.”