Egyptian Journalist Cherif Choubachy Deplores the Stagnant State of Islam, Which Gives Rise to Disasters Like the Barcelona Terror Attack

Egyptian journalist Cherif Choubachy bemoaned the "catastrophic" state of Islam, which has "undergone fossilization, stagnation, and the rejection of anything new." If there had been a Nobel Prize in the Middle Ages, the Muslims would have had a monopoly on it, said Choubachy, but the world has undergone progress, while we "continue to live as our forefathers lived." In a Sada Al-Balad TV interview broadcast on August 22, Choubachy talked about the Barcelona car-ramming attack, among others, saying that "behind these disasters there are imams, who instill the notion... that we must get rid of infidels."

Cherif Choubachy: "We need to realize that stagnation, fossilization, the rejection of anything new, the belief that anything new deviates from the right path, and leads to the Hellfire – all this is a catastrophe. Nobody talks to me about religious discourse anymore. We continue to shut up and be silent. Nobody speaks up, we do not develop our country, and we continue to live as our forefathers lived..."

Host: "The same way..."

Cherif Choubachy: "Exactly. The same way. No, the world has developed and made progress. Today... The religion of Islam gave rise to one of the world's greatest civilizations. As I wrote in my book, if there had been a Nobel Prize back then, the Arabs – or the Muslims, to be precise, as many of them were not Arabs – would have had a monopoly on it." The Nobel Prize in Literature would have gone to Al-Mutanabbi, and before him, to Ibn Al-Rumi, and after him to Abul 'Ala Al-Ma'arri, to Al-Jahiz, and to Abu Hayyan Al-Tawhidi. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry would have been awarded to the great Jaber ibn Hayyan, Alhazen would have received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

[...]

"I'm writing a study on this. What happened to us?"

Host: "What indeed?"

Cherif Choubachy: "Let me finish. We have undergone fossilization, stagnation, opposition to any innovation. This is what has happened to us..."

Host: "Since when, approximately?"

Cherif Choubachy: "For many centuries.

[...]

"In 2015, 90% of the executions worldwide were carried out by three countries. Which countries? Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. Last week was full of terror attacks. A young man wields a knife... A young man, who applied for political asylum in Finland, and who was given money and an apartment to live in... He was only 18 years old. He took a knife and went to a group of young women standing together, killed two of them and wounded eight. Another guy in Barcelona takes a car and kills some 20 people. What [ideas] are they putting into their minds? Of course, it turns out that behind these disasters there are imams, who instill in the minds of these people the notion that these are infidels, and that we must get rid of these infidels."