‘Black Box’ and the Years of Confrontation (Part 3): Abdelrehim Ali establishes center for studies

We return you again to continue talking about Dr. Abdelrehim Aly on the program “Black Box”. In the previous episode, we stopped when the terrorist group issued a fatwa to assassinate him, which was not a secret, but rather broadcast from their extremist pulpits.

As someone newly acquainted with Abdelrehim Aly or as a follower of his since the “Black Box” period or after, you have the right to ask a question. Why Abdelrehim Aly? This is because you may have seen part of the atmosphere of that battle, but in these episodes, I have tried as much as possible to present to you the story by summarizing many of its details to realize that the matter was never just ringing slogans, and that the man, and I am not exaggerating, was the first journalist and the most daring to reveal these groups. This will become clear from our presentation of its publication during this episode and the next.

The Luxor incident and the issuance of the initiative to stop the violence was an opportunity to restore the activity of Aly, who did not stop secretly throughout the year after the group’s fatwa to assassinate him. Now he is back to lead a fierce war against what he calls “a deal between the government and violent groups.” Abdelrehim Aly wrote and entered into a fierce battle, but this time with the Ministry of Interior and its new minister at the time, Major General Habib al-Adly, and the strange thing is that Refaat El-Saeed entered with him into the battle line. The situation became complicated, and Abdelrehim Aly distanced himself from covering the Ministry of the Interior as a representative of the newspaper Al-Ahali due to the minister’s intransigence with him. He quickly resigned from Al-Ahali in 1998 to open a center for the study of political Islamist movements.

Opening of the Arab Center for Studies and Research

While the situation in Egypt was like this, armed groups disguised in religion tried to impose their mandate over society by chasing down the figures of enlightenment and progress if not by assassination. If you want to comprehend the coincidence, I tell you that the attempt to assassinate Naguib Mahfouz took place in the Agouza district, which was later represented by Abdelrehim Aly in the House of Representatives. Indeed, Naguib Mahfouz also spent his treatment period in Agouza at the Police Hospital. That difficult, edgy atmosphere was also experienced by Abdelrehim Aly, so he turned full force to research and studies, and he established a center to investigate the roots of these phenomena locally and internationally. He published several books, which have become references for research into the affairs of terrorist groups, including:

1- “The Muslim Brotherhood: Fatwas on Copts, Democracy, Women and Art”

This book reveals the positions of the Muslim Brotherhood on the issues of Copts, democracy, women and art, based on official fatwas issued by the group and its leaders. The book reveals a set of important facts about the position of the Brotherhood on these issues, among them the Brotherhood's explicit and clear hostility to freedom of worship and their denial of the right of non-Muslims to perform their religious rituals, the Brotherhood’s complete denial of all documented and confirmed terrorist practices in their history and their refusal to apologize for negative practices, the Brotherhood’s rejection of women working and disregard for women’s health, physical and psychological rights, and finally the group’s regard of art as an “imported commodity” from the West that is synonymous with amusement and leads to corruption.

2- “The Muslim Brotherhood: The Crisis of the Renewal Movement”

The book monitors some features of the crisis of the renewal movement in the Brotherhood and its strictness with the vision of the traditional conservative current that leads the group and controls its capabilities.

3- “Islam and Freedom of Opinion and Expression”

This book seeks to objectively identify the concept of “freedom of opinion and expression in Islam” within the framework of rational ijtihad (independent reasoning), stressing the need for intellectual renewal and keeping pace with the spirit of the age among the imperatives of the Islamic heritage. It highlights the role and merit of the school of renewal and diligence in renewing the course of Islamic thought.

4- “Bitter Harvest: The State and Religious Violence Groups in Egypt”

The lines of this book revolve around the emergence and development of religious groups (al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, Egyptian Islamic Jihad), the story of the growth and expansion of these groups, the position of the ruling regime and the security services towards them, and then their violent clash with the state, leading to the initiative to stop violence adopted by al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya and the subsequent release of some of the group’s leaders and cadres in 2003.

5- “Risks in the Government Deal and Violent Groups”

This book addresses a set of confusing questions, some of which amount to “puzzles”. It seeks through a persistent and deliberate attempt, using observation, logical analysis, and reading the backgrounds, to unveil where the reasons, justifications and motives lie. The subject of the book is a big question: how do we read the radical Islamist scene through the dialogues, initiatives, splits, accusations and transformations within the two largest organizations that practiced violence and terrorism for more than two decades?

6- “The Big Gamble: The Initiative to Stop Violence between the Government’s Bet and al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya”

The book includes seven chapters. The first chapter is “The Big Bet: The Initiative to Stop Violence”. The second and third chapters, “The Dodgers: The Photographer's Dialogues and the Group’s Lies” and “The Constant and Variable in the Thought of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya”, respectively, come to criticize the lies and evasions of the group's historical leaders, specifically their position on five issues: takfir, jihad, Copts, tourism, and hisbah (upholding community morals). The fourth chapter, “The Map of Violent Groups in Egypt”, is devoted by the author to shed light on the history of this organization over a quarter of a century. The book dedicates the fifth chapter to studying the organization of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya under the title “Who are They?”. In the sixth chapter, the author returns to monitoring and studying the “deal” between the group and the authorities. The most important question, which was the title of the seventh chapter of the book, "What Do They Want?: The Goal”, reveals that the group did not deviate from its goal and objective of seizing power and establishing a caliphate state in accordance with their vision.

In the next episode, we will continue the rest of the publications and stories about “Black Box”. I invite you to read it well, and you will find the answers to many questions in it and realize the planning and danger of these terrorist groups and the crimes they committed against this country.