Farag Foda

Farag Foda (August 20 1945 - June 8 1992)( _ar. a=فرج فوده|t=Faraj Foda ) was an important Egyptian thinker, human rights activist, writer, and columnist.

Career

Based in Cairo, Farag Foda was noted for his critical articles and sharp satires about Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt. In many newspaper articles, he demonstrated weak points in Islamic ideology [Ana Belén Soage, "An Egyptian Dissident's Fate: Faraj Fawda and the Cost of Free Speech", "Middle East Review of International Affairs" 11(2) (June 2007) [http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2007/issue2/jv11no2a3.html] ] . Among other things he exposed Egypt's most popular preacher, Abd al-Hamid Kishk, for "telling his audience that Muslims who entered paradise would enjoy eternal erections and the company of young boys draped in earrings and necklaces," and promising them "an eternity of blissful pederasty." [Judith Miller, "God Has Ninety-Nine Names: Reporting From a Militant Middle East" [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFDF1039F933A15756C0A960958260] ]

Assassination

He was shot to death in his office on 8 June 1992 by two
Islamic fundamentalists from the Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya group. His son and other bystanders were seriously wounded in the attack.

Before his death, Farag Foda was declared an apostate and foe of Islam. An Al-Azhar scholar, Mohammed al-Ghazali, a witness before the court, declared it was not wrong to kill a foe of Islam. 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) has failed to implement (undertake)."

Its suspected that his assassination was executed after a Fatwa issued by the religious leaders of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Omar Abdel-Rahman who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 1996.

One of Foda's killers, Abd al-Shafi Ahmad Ramadhan, was sentenced to death on 30 December 1993 and executed on 26 February 1994. The other was executed for another murder.

Books

Books of Farag Foda: All in Arabic with no translations in sight:
*"Before The Fall" - 1st Print 1985. 2nd Print 1995
*"Discussion on Secularism" - 1st Print 1987. 2nd Print 2005
*"The Warning" -1st Print 1989. 2nd Print 2005
*"The Played With" - 1st Print 1985. 2nd Print 2004
*"We Be or Not to Be" - 1st Print 1988. 2nd Print 2004
*"Pleasure Marriage" - 1st Print 1990. 2nd Print 2004

Notes