Sayyid Al-Qemany is an Egyptian secular writer and thinker. His works emphasize the importance of critical thinking, and he is an opponent of Islamic fundamentalism, supporting separation of religion and state, and tolerance. In 2009, he won the Egyptian Culture Ministry's prize for achievement in the social sciences, a cash award of 200,000 Egyptian pounds. A judicial and media campaign was launched calling for the prize to be withdrawn by those who claimed Al-Qemany was a heretic who has harmed Islam and Muslims with his writings.
Views and opinions
Al-Qemany views the Koran as an historical script to be applied in understanding the ancient history of mankind, and contends that it is a legitimate tool to study it from a historical perspective using the same scientific tools and criteria that are employed for other disciplines.
Criticism
Al-Qemany gave two contradicting narratives with regard to his doctorate degree, both were criticized by Egyptian intellectuals and media as being fake. He once claimed to have earned the degree from the Southern California University, a fake university according to Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning 2003. He also claimed that he earned the degree from Kuwait University supervised by Prof. Fouad Zakaria, without supporting his claim. No thesis with his name exists in Kuwait University’s library and Prof. Zakaria denied having supervised him. Former Egyptian mufti Nasr Farid Wasilo called the decision to award Al-Qimni the prize "a crime against Egypt's Muslim identity." The Islamic association Jabhat 'Ulama Al-Azhar stated that Al-Qimni "has openly blasphemed in a manner that does not lend itself to interpretation." The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya also attacked Sayyed Al-Qimni Dar Al-Ifta, Egypt's official fatwa-issuing body, headed by Chief Mufti Dr. 'Ali Gomaa issued a fatwa stating in part:
The Muslims unanimously that whoever curses the Prophet or slanders Islam removes himself from the fold of Islam and of Muslims, and deserves punishment in this world and torment in the world to come... The statements quoted by the who requested the fatwa are heretical, regardless of who wrote them; they remove their author from the fold of Islam... and constitute a crime according to Article 98 of penal code. If these depraved, loathsome, and invalid statements were indeed made by a specific individual, then this individual should be convicted rather than awarded a prize, and punished to the full extent of the law...
Shiekh Youssef Al-Badri accused him of "deconstructing Islam using eloquent sugar-coated attacks more fatal than Salman Rushdie". Al-Qemany replied that Badri was accusing him of atheism. "Islamic scholars do not want the Muslim to use his God-given brain! They want a submissive and obedient Muslim who refers to them in the slightest details of his life." Egyptian liberals came to Al-Qimni's defense and called on the government to defend him against accusations of heresy "which are tantamount to incitement to murder." Human rights activists, academics, and journalists issued a petition of solidarity with him.
