With the Rabaa Square massacre emblazoned as a symbol of a desperate resistance project and a means of blackmailing us through bloodshed by an oppressive regime in favor of a no less oppressive one, the brouhaha surrounding the poster campaign ‘Have you prayed for Prophet Muhammad today?’ shows the state’s utter madness.

Launched two months ago the campaign has stirred so much controversy that even the Ministry of Interior announced it would intervene and remove the posters.

With the Rabaa Square massacre emblazoned as a symbol of a desperate resistance project and a means of blackmailing us through bloodshed by an oppressive regime in favor of a no less oppressive one, the brouhaha surrounding the poster campaign ‘Have you prayed for Prophet Muhammad today?’ shows the state’s utter madness.

Launched two months ago the campaign has stirred so much controversy that even the Ministry of Interior announced it would intervene and remove the posters.

The posters are reminiscent of Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Yakoub when he asked in his famous videos: “You, yes you, why are not you praying for Prophet Muhammad?”

The question immediately makes you feel guilty or scolds you for ignoring a necessary task or catches you red-handed in the act of outright negligence.

Politicizing religion

Our implicit answer would be: “I am sorry and guilty. Our hectic life distracts us.  May God have mercy on our Prophet Muhammad!”

This is all natural as the Islamic current, including the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists, is skilled and specialized in exploiting our religious feelings and making us feel that we are always negligent and we are not good Muslims—nothing new there.

What is different now is that since June 30, the familiar phrase ‘Pray for Prophet Muhammad’, which is used by some people in their daily exchanges or at the beginning of a chat, has turned into a political war in a development of the well-known disease: politicizing religion.

The media of the remnants and al-Sisi stressed that these posters are published by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Ministry of Interior itself launched a campaign two months ago in many governorates to remove the posters.

Some observers in the governorates underlined that the active local members of Nour Party are behind their dissemination. This might be true as the party relies heavily on its religious preaching propaganda. The most important bit is that the state, especially the ministry, has decided to handle the matter as a threat to the state in one way or another, which is why it decided to get rid of the posters.

The Rabea sign as evidence?

As a result, the posters went viral. Their use has become a sign of resisting the war on Islam and the despotic authorities. For example, some young men who are affiliated with civil political organizations posted on their Facebook pages: ‘Have you prayed for the Prophet Muhammad?’ just to tease the Ministry and al-Sisi’s supporters.

On the other hand, Rabaa’s media reported how brave women breached the curfew imposed on the area and rose the above-mentioned slogan, and the situation became aggravated by their arrest by security forces.

The Ministry and al-Sisi’s version of the story, which is that the Muslim Brotherhood is exploiting this innocent phrase for political purposes, is true to a certain degree.

In some instances, the Rabaa sign was found alongside this innocent slogan. However, does this justify waging a war against this slogan? For the state, this is a good enough justification.  Yet, by doing so, it gives the Islamic current a very good reason to enter in a confrontation with the enemies of Islam and for the freedoms of expression and belief.    

Is being insulting a crime?

This silly confrontation gets the secular citizens into trouble. On the one hand, removing posters from cars or shops is an outright breach of the freedoms of expression and belief as long as the posters do not include incitement to violence against others.

On the other hand, the confused secular citizens realized that putting up these posters constitutes a silly political game and they are not willing to defend those who exploit religious feelings for political purposes.

However, would exploiting the feelings of others be considered a crime? The state and al-Sisi’s presidential election campaign also exploited the citizens’ feelings and their love for their country, but this cannot be considered a crime from a legal point of view.

Al-Sisi, as a presidential candidate and then as a president, exploited the country as if it were his own and considered it part of his project (and assumed program) despite the fact that the country is for all people including the rival candidate, boycotters and those who cannot vote.

Can al-Sisi’s campaign be sentenced to imprisonment for exploiting the patriotic feelings of the people as was the Muslim Brotherhood (the supporters of Morsi’s legitimacy) for exploiting the religious feelings, considering that religious beliefs are also for all believers not only Morsi’s supporters?               

A string of stupid authorities

It seems that we are destined to live in a country that is governed by a very stupid authority which, through its despotism, keeps giving the Islamic current free presents, i.e. the victim position.

 The Islamic current (those who supported Morsi’s legitimacy and those who abandoned him) accepted the gift wholeheartedly and held on to this simple poster, as it is very useful as people have grown bored of repeating the same old slogans about democracy, elections and legitimacy.

Building the Muslim character should start from scratch and the focus should be on the religious rather than the political discourse as though no popular revolution was launched against the Islamic regime that took power in Egypt.

This state is good at giving free presents to the Islamic current thanks to its stubbornness against the pro-Muslim Brotherhood journalists without good reasons, maltreatment which made so many people support and sympathize with them and launch campaigns for the freedom of press whose heroes are Islamic-oriented journalists who defended the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideas when it was in office in addition to issuing unfair sentences against young women in a way that turned them instantly into icons and symbols for truth and justice values versus tyranny.

The state, in this sense, is not an intelligence officer who gives direct orders for people but is a general status quo and discourse which includes governmental departments, private and public media and conservative judges who punish outlaws including members of the Muslim Brotherhood or rebels without being ordered to do so.

As Rabaa is the symbol of a desperate resistance project and a means of blackmailing us through a blood that was shed by an oppressive regime in favor of a no less oppressive one, posters that read ‘Have you prayed for Prophet Muhammad today? come as a pure representation of the state’s madness and stupidity and the Islamic current’s degeneration and exploitation of the people’s religious feelings and the dilemma of whoever believes in freedom in this country.

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