At a time when the persecution of Christians is so rampant experts say it rivals the days of the deadly pogroms of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made an extraordinary speech on New Year’s Day calling upon the Muslim world to wake up and realize that radical elements within their fold are destroying their religion.

According to Professor Mark Movsesian writing for First Things, the internet is buzzing about the speech made on January 1 at the most important center of Islamic learning in the Sunni world - Cairo’s Al Azhar University. During the talk, Sisi called upon the assembled scholars to revisit Islamic law in order to calm the fears of the non-Muslim world.

“We have to think hard about what we are facing . . . It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire umma [Islamic world] to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible!” Sisi exclaimed.

He goes on to say that it’s not religion but a way of thinking that is distorting the meaning of their sacred texts, departing from them to such an extent that Islam is now antagonizing the entire world.

“Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants—that is 7 billion—so that they themselves may live? Impossible!”

He continued: “All this that I am telling you, you cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset. You need to step outside of yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective. I say and repeat again that we are in need of a religious revolution.”

Sisi went on to tell the gathered imams that they are responsible before Allah. “The entire world, I say it again, the entire world is waiting for your next move… because this umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.”

He then leveled this ominous threat: “I am saying these words here at Al Azhar, before this assembly of scholars and ulema—Allah Almighty be witness to your truth on Judgment Day concerning that which I’m talking about now.”

While many are praising Sisi’s bravery, scholars such as Movsesian are taking a “wait and see” attitude while remaining hopeful that this speech may have broken new ground.

“For centuries, most Islamic law scholars—though not all—have held that ‘the gate of ijtihad,’ or independent legal reasoning, has closed, that fiqh has reached perfection and cannot be developed further,” Movsesian explains.

“If Sisi is calling for the gate to open, and if fiqh scholars at a place like Al Azhar heed the call, that would be a truly radical step, one that would send shock waves throughout the Islamic world.”

But it could also backfire. There are some who are calling for the opening of the gate in order to purge Islam of what they see as the encroachment of un-Islamic traditions over the centuries which could result in making it even more radical. Sisi seems to have the opposite idea in mind – that opening the gate will allow Islam to adapt to a modern, pluralistic world where every non-Muslim no longer has to be converted or killed.

It’s impossible to tell at this early date what will become of Sisi’s impassioned call for reform, but his remarks “do suggest he means a rethinking of Islamic law to adapt to contemporary pluralism,” Movsesian concludes, then adds: “This is definitely worth watching.”

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