No Personal Freedom in Islam

Hazem Saleh Abu Ismail is a well-known Islamic scholar in Egypt. He is affiliated with both the Muslim Brotherhood and the even more radical Salafists, the two groups that dominate the Egyptian parliament after the recent elections.

Mr. Ismail is now a candidate for the presidency of Egypt. During an interview last summer he said that there is no room for personal freedom in Islam, and that women in Egypt must wear the hijab.

Many thanks to Mary Abdelmassih for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for subtitling this video:


Hazem Saleh Abu Ismail has also been interviewed on CBC. He made headlines several years ago by calling for a boycott of Pepsi-Cola, saying that the company was a Zionist conspiracy, and that name of the drink stood for “Pay Every Penny to Save Israel”.

A transcript of the video is below the jump:

Moderator:		If you have started to control the way she dresses…
Hazem:		I started it? God Almighty is the one who said that. I have nothing to do with it
Moderator:		God Almighty has left it to me as a personal freedom
Hazem:		Who told you that?
Hazem:		If you claim to me that God has left it to me as a personal freedom, tell me where? This is something no one has said, except the people who have no knowledge of Sharia.
Moderator:		There is “Let there be no compulsion in religion”
Hazem:		In faith, yes, meaning you do not convert him to Islam by force.
Moderator:		When God mentions religion in the Koran, does this apply to faith only? When he says “I have accomplished for you your religion,” is he talking here only about faith ?
Hazem:		Exactly, because here it is like “let there be no compulsion in joining the military academy.” He who wants to join, can join, and he who does not wish to join, then let it be. But if you join the military academy you have to wear the uniform of the military academy, go there at the times specified by the military academy, and you have to train and obey the leader
Moderator:		This is a problem. Am I to tell the one who does not wear the hijab that if you want to escape this, you have to change your faith?
Hazem:		Exactly. Well done. If you are a Muslim woman, where is the difficulty? This is Islam. Does she want to be a Muslim and not obey God? They have to say it. If only they were “honest”. I am only asking from them to be honest.