Egyptian Screenwriter Wahid Hamed Attacks the Muslim Brotherhood: They Are Taking Society Backward with "Notions Stemming from a Desert Mindset"

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian screenwriter Wahid Hamed, which aired on Dream2 TV on September 16, 2010:

Interviewer: What is behind your dispute with the Muslim Brotherhood?

Wahid Hamed: I don’t have any dispute with them as Muslims. Very simply, I am against religious rule. I do not want a religious state, while they strive for a religious state – even if they deny it. I am against a religious state because when you rule me with religion, I am not allowed to disagree with you. If you rule me or are in charge of me, in the framework of a religious state, then if I disagree with you, I am disagreeing with the religion, with God, which renders me an infidel.

Interviewer; Are there other reasons for your dispute with them?

Wahid Hamed: There are many reasons.

Interviewer: What is the most important one?

Wahid Hamed: The most important one is that they are taking society backward. The entire world is awakening and making progress by leaps and bounds. There is civilization, progress, technological development, and so on, while they would like to take me backward, through a Salafi mentality whose notions stem from a desert mindset.

Interviewer: But some may say that religious rule has succeeded in other countries, like Turkey.

Wahid Hamed: Why not talk about Iran? And who told you that the religious rule in Turkey is stable? Do you want to implement the Turkish religious rule in Egypt?

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The [militant] Islamic groups emerged from the womb of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Interviewer: In what way?

Wahid Hamed: I will explain. All these Islamic groups have stemmed from the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Interviewer: I recall that Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who is a member of the Islamic Jihad, and one of the accused in the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, accused the Muslim Brotherhood of being an opportunistic movement.

Wahid Hamed: But at the end of the day, who led all these movements in this direction? The Muslim Brotherhood ideology. They have sown the seed.

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