Muslim Scholar Publishes Anti-Christian Book in Egypt
By Mary Abdelmassih
12/13/2009 Egypt (AINA) – Christians in Egypt are up in arms this week over a controversial book issued as a free supplement with this month’s Al-Azhar magazine, describing Christianity as a Religion of “idolatry” and claiming that the Holy Bible is a misquotation of the original one. The book was published by State-owned corporations that are financed by taxpayers, Christians as well as Muslims.
The controversial book is titled “Scientific Report” and authored by Dr. Muhammad Imarah, a member of Al-Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy (IRA), which is affiliated with the Ministry of Religious Endowments. The book discusses Christian dogma, casts doubts over it, and asserts that Christianity is a “religion of polytheism.”
The defamation of Christianity and the incitement of Muslims against Egyptian Christians was so grave in this book that Dr. Imarah was threaten by a barrage of lawsuits. At the time, Imarah apologized, explaining that the paragraph in question was no more than a quote from a century-old book by the grand Islamic Imam Mahmoud Hamed El-Ghazali, defining faith and atheism. His excuse was that he quoted the old text without “thinking.” The book was recalled and later printed with the derision of Christianity removed.
