Head of Muslim preaching and mosques in the city of Aden Sheikh Anis Al-Hobaishi reported on Saturday that his life could be in danger after he made statements recently on the authenticity of one of Prophet Muhammad’s sayings (Hadith) regarding jihad.
Sheikh Al-Hobaishi’s concern grew after a number of imams signed a petition addressed to the Yemeni Minister of the Muslim Endowment Funds asking for the removal of Sheikh Al-Hobaishi from his post because he made statements that violated the sanctity of the Hadith and he wrongly accused other Yemeni Sheikhs of being involved in fuelling terrorism. Sheikh Al-Hobaishi concluded that such a petition meant an accusation to him of renouncing Islam and the Sunna; thus allowing for his killing.
The Hadith in question is “I was ordered to fight until people admit that there is no God but God. If they admit it, they will be spared their life and money . The Hadith was assessed as unauthentic by Sheikh Al-Hobaishi since it contradicted with a number of Quranic verses stating that religious belief should not be forced onto people. He also criticized the wide use of this Hadith in elementary and secondary schools’ curricula and deemed it as the cause of future terrorism.
Sheikh Al-Hobaishi stated this opinion in an article in the official Yemeni newspaper “The 14th of October on July 8th in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the Temple of Queen Belqais in the city of Ma’rib in which seven Spanish tourists and two Yemeni drivers were killed.
In his article entitled “Terrorism: Howling and no Grinding, Sheikh Al-Hobaishi wondered why the message of the Muslim scholars denouncing terrorism never reached the terrorists. He saw that the missing link existed in the curriculum Muslim students were exposed to. Sheikh Al-Hobaishi also dissected the hypocrisy of the Muslim scholars who do nothing to stop this silent and poisonous indoctrination of the young minds but who overtly condemn terrorism.
The same hypocrisy also exists in their condemnation of the Shia rebels, under rebel leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, who claim the right to re-instate the Shia Imamate while they use militant Shia texts to fuel jihad against their opponents and the West. Such howling, he said, is well heard but no actual action is taken to put an end to terrorism.
Sheikh Al-Hobaishi published earlier this year another controversial article titled “The Muslim Woman: Falsified Rights and a Wasted Dignity , in which he severely criticized the “regressive forces within Islam that worked hard to see the undoing of the Personal Status Law number 20 adopted in 1992. The law ensured women more rights, and its termination inaugurated an era of Dark Ages for women.
The row created after the publication of both articles grew gradually until the signing of the petition. Sheikh Al-Hobaishi reported that there was a direct link between the rising fury and the Islamist Yemeni Alliance for Reform and other fundamentalist elements under the leadership of the Wahhabi Sheikh Abou Al-Hassan Al-Solimani Al-Masri. Sheikh Al-Hobaishi filed an official complaint to the district attorney in Aden based on the discrete threat implied in the petition.
Sheikh Ali Muhammad Ali, one of the petitioners, declared that what Sheikh Al-Hobaishi said was totally unacceptable, adding that “if the Sheikh wants to talk about terrorism, he can talk about terrorism on its own and those who commit terrorism, but he has to refrain from shedding doubt on the authenticity of the Prophet’s Hadith . The petitioners, however, required that Sheikh Anis Al-Hobaishi be referred to a special committee to repent, which implies that he was considered an apostate.
Sheikh Al-Hobaishi is not the first Muslim scholar to be accused by takfiri ideologues of renouncing the tenets of Islam. The long line includes names that were recently attacked, such as the Sudanese scholar Hassan Al-Turabi and the Egyptian scholar Gamal Al-Banna. The takfiri race against moderate voices who are trying to bridge the gap between rigid interpretations of religious texts and tolerant Islamic practices is fighting hard to win followers by condemnation and public uproars. This hard-fought battle though is another domain where moderates can reverse for their benefit by exposing the dangerous outcomes of using takfiri weapons against the voice of reason.
Omneya El Naggar, MA, is an Egyptian political commentator and researcher in comparative politics in the Middle East. She has also done research on political Islam, terrorism, and East-West dialogue. This commentary is special to DAILY NEWS EGYPT.
