The Second Assassination of Farag Foda

Al-Masry Al-Youm, Egypt, May 19

In June 1992, two members of the Islamist group Al-Gama’a Al-Islamya awaited Farag Foda, the noted Egyptian writer and human rights activist, outside his office and killed him. The assassination came just 10 days after Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali of Al-Azhar University, together with other notable sheikhs, accused Foda of being “an enemy of Islam” and issued a religious verdict accusing him of being an “apostate.” This was followed by a statement published a few days later in the Islamic newspaper Al-Nour, which incited against Foda and his call to separate religion from the Egyptian state. Last week, Foda’s assassination came again to the fore when noted actor Ahmed Al-Rafei published a Facebook post celebrating the death and describing it as the “only time that the Egyptian people celebrated someone’s killing.” The post caused an uproar in Egypt, especially among Foda’s surviving children, who described Rafei as a “fundamental extremist.” In publishing his disgraceful post, Rafei assassinated Farag Foda for the second time…. His ignorant and frightening remarks beg the question: Did Rafei even read any of Foda’s texts? Did he know anything about the man’s views of the world? I highly doubt he did. Instead, he continued the dubious legacy of Islamist fundamentalists who turned Foda’s legitimate philosophical texts into illegitimate provocations against Islam. The sheikhs of Al-Azhar had cleared the way for the blood of Farag Foda, and their statements were a direct assignment of murder, yet Rafei still considers them holy. “Whatever the honorable Al-Azhar sheikhs say,” he contended, “embrace it.” Sadly, we are in the midst of a social and cultural crisis that reveals the coming apart of our country. The most frightening and concerning aspect is that prominent cultural icons living in our midst refuse to abide by logic and morality, and encourage reckless behavior that is inspired by the Islamic State par excellence. – Azza Kamel (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)