Cairo, Egypt - As
Gabr sat in a seafront cafe in his hometown of Alexandria, he spoke
about his past opinion of atheists. "I used to think that they should be
killed," he said matter-of-factly.
Gabr - not his real name - was brought
up in a moderate Muslim family before becoming a Salafi, a follower of a
literalist and puritanical form of Islam. He eventually underwent a
radical shift in belief to become one of those people he used to
despise: an atheist, an apostate, a kafir - a group of people who feel under threat in Egypt because of their lack of belief in God.
Atheists are uncommon in Egypt, and
reliable statistics on their numbers are unavailable because of the lack
of research and an unwillingness to admit one's atheism. However, both
atheists and religious people in Egypt agree that atheism has recently
become a more prominent issue in the country.
"I never knew there were any atheists
in Alexandria until 2011, after the revolution. Before the revolution,
all this time, I was thinking that I am the only one here," recalled
30-year-old Gabr.
"It was very lonely. My computer was
my world. Until 2011, I was just contacting foreign people and almost
stopped contact with Egyptian people. You feel like you are so
different, you are against everything religious people say, you can't
meet them in the middle."
For a time after the 2011 uprising
against former president Hosni Mubarak, there was greater freedom of
expression in the country, and atheists began to be more publicly
assertive. Yet at the same time, the power and influence of conservative
Islam grew, with the election of Mohamed Morsi as president and
Islamist parliamentary candidates' success at the ballot box.
| All of them are angry, in a way that you can't imagine. They insult everything. I don't take these messages seriously. |
'All of them are angry'
Gabr is a member of an atheist group
that meets up for drinks and goes to concerts together. When the group
began in 2011, it had three or four members. Now it has close to 100,
including men and women, ex-Muslims and ex-Christians.
"All of them are angry, in a way that
you can't imagine," he said. "They insult everything." Gabr claimed he
has received threats from people on Facebook threatening to kill him
with a sword. "I don't take these messages seriously," he said. "For me,
it is pathetic. I see them as victims." Nevertheless, he did not want
to use his real name for this article.
For atheists and those perceived to be
critical of religion in Egypt, the threat of violence and persecution
is real. Although atheism is not technically illegal in Egypt, its penal
code criminalises "contempt of heavenly religions", desecrating
religious symbols and mocking religious rites in public.
In late October it was reported that
Sherif Gaber, a 20-year-old student, had been arrested after allegedly
setting up a Facebook page calling for atheism. The author Karam Saber
is currently appealing a five-year prison sentence after being convicted of contempt of religion and defamation in his book Where is God? And in December 2012, Albert Saber, an atheist blogger and activist, was sentenced to three years in jail after being found guilty of "defamation of religion".
'Society is the problem'
The authorities, Egyptian atheists
say, are not the only danger they face. "I'm not afraid of the
government, I'm afraid of the people. Society is the problem," said
28-year-old Ayman Emam.
About a year ago, Emam set up a
Facebook page called "Egyptian Atheists Community" in Cairo. The group
has 15 members and includes former Muslims and Christians. He described
the page as an attempt to draw attention to the threats and persecution
faced by atheists in Egypt, from Christians as well as Muslims.
When asked how atheists are treated,
he replied: "It depends on your luck. You can be an atheist and telling
people, and nothing can happen to you. Or you can be fired from work,
your life can be destroyed, acts of violence can be taken against
you. It depends where you are, the circle of people around you. For me,
the people at work don't know. The people at school didn't know. You
have to keep your opinions to yourself. It's a stressful situation."
People who have been perceived to be
criticising religion have been attacked and murdered in Egypt. In 1992,
the writer Farag Foda was assassinated by religious hardliners after
being accused of blasphemy. The Nobel Prize-winning novelist Naguib
Mahfouz was stabbed in the neck by Islamists in 1994. He survived but
suffered permanent injuries.
According to
the Pew Research Center, 74 percent of Egyptian Muslims want sharia, or
Islamic law, to be recognised as the official law. Of those committed
to sharia law, 86 percent favour the death penalty for those who leave
Islam - although this is technically defined in the survey as those who
join another faith.
Despite his fears, Emam said he feels
the need to respond to what he sees as growing religious conservatism
and intolerance in Egypt, and he insists his group is not
proselytising. "What benefit does it give you as an atheist if you
convert people to atheism?" he asks. "We just want people to be more
tolerant to our beliefs and we want society to be more balanced."
Straining relationships
Noha Mahmoud Salem, 53, describes herself as a former "fanatic" and Salafi. She began wearing the niqab,
or veil, at the age of 21. At 24, she married a conservative Muslim and
they had three boys together. But around the age of 30 she began having
doubts about religion, and she stopped praying.
Both Noha and her husband thought she
might have a psychological problem. She went to see specialists who told
her she was suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and needed
strong medication. The medication didn't seem to help, and she was still
questioning her faith, so she was given stronger and more harmful
drugs. She became like a zombie, she said.
"It stopped my thinking and I was
afraid that some damage had been done to my brain," she recalled. "When I
stopped the medication, my brain gradually recovered."
But her questioning of religion
continued. Noha finally got divorced from her husband in 2007, after
nearly 25 years of marriage. She does not, however, describe herself as
an atheist. "It is better to say I am a 'Muslim' but 'an intellectual
Muslim,'" she said, "because when I say 'I am a Muslim', people will
begin to hear me. Otherwise they will be my enemies."
Yet she cannot get her three sons to
listen to her. Her relationship with them is a big source of
anguish. She describes them as Salafis. They treat her harshly, and warn
her that she is going to hell; meanwhile, she tells them there is no
hell.
"They always tell me that I am
psychologically troubled," she says. A few months ago, Noha got a
certificate from a psychologist in Alexandria proving that she is
mentally well. What did her family say? "No, the doctor is wrong; he
didn't give you the right diagnosis."
As an atheist, Gabr has struggled in
his romantic life. He cannot admit his atheism to religious girls. "You
have to be a hypocrite," he said. He recently met a Christian girl he
liked, but when she saw from his online posts that he was an atheist,
"she got mad and said 'I am not proud to know someone like you'".
Ayman Emam was harassed by the police
and neighbours when he lived with his atheist girlfriend, because they
were not married. It is impossible for atheists to marry, unless they
pretend to be religious, as civil marriages are not possible in Egypt.
Emam denies that atheism is a gateway to vice and debauchery, pointing
out that there is no shortage of these among religious people. "Religion
doesn't stop people from having sex and drinking alcohol," he said,
"things that they enjoy".
Atheism and the uprisings
While Egyptian society has grown more
religiously conservative, the uprisings have also provided some space
for atheists and those critical of religion to speak out. "The
psychology of the Egyptians completely changed after the [2011]
revolution," said Salem. "Now they are more open - everybody wants to
say something. Really, myself, I feel more courageous."
Emam is more ambivalent. Though he
said he thinks the removal of Morsi may make society more liberal in
terms of art and drinking alcohol, he believes that "nothing has changed
regarding the general feeling towards atheists. The society is still
the same."
Waves crashed soundlessly against the
sea walls, drowned out by the vehicles hurtling along the corniche, as
Gabr sat in a seafront bar. Couples and families strolled and took in
the sea air, or sat along the harbour walls. Most of the women were
wearing the hijab, or headscarf.
Like Emam, Gabr said he was ambivalent
about the uprising's consequences for atheists. "It gave you more
space. You can speak your mind more," he said, adding that atheists may
be entitled to greater freedom of speech now that the Islamist President
Mohamed Morsi has been ousted. Yet the "revolution" has not produced
all the freedoms he had wished for.
A new constitution is being drafted in the wake of Morsi's ousting. A group of atheists recently
called for this document to respect freedom of expression and to
protect atheists. They called for the repeal of several articles,
including Article Two, which states that Islam is the religion of the
state and that sharia is the basis for legislation. However, it appears
unlikely they will get the protections they are looking for.
Despite his misgivings, Gabr is
hopeful for Egypt's future. "I like to take the French revolution as an
example, because it took years," he said. "Everything didn't change at
once. But something started; a process."
