WALID PHARES: Jedi al Kimmi in trouble in Egypt

Mr Sayed al Kimmi is an Egyptian intellectual who advocates freedom of thinking and pluralism. He, and some of his friends have launched an intellectual movement calling for the restoration of Egypt's ancestral identity. He would be the equivalent of a writer and lecturer calling for the renaissance of native cultures, such as Indians in the United States.

Many of his books were banned by Al Azhar, (University and Islamic religious authorities in Egypt) because he criticized Islamic theology. He struggles for the pre-Arab Pharaonic identity of Egypt, the longer period of history Egypt has known over 5,000 years. He was regarded as an apostate by religious leaders although not charged officially. However, he was threatened by JIhadi Salafists who resent the fact that he calls for the return to pre-Islamic culture. He told his entourage that he received emails he believed were from Al Qaida threatening to kill him.

Being a former pan Arabist and a scholar from al Azhar gives him intellectual credibility as he shifted towards liberalism and secular philosophies.

If any type of independent thinker can claim progress in and is capable of engaging in the war of ideas, it would be the like of al Kimmi. But alone facing the radicals, the religious authorities and unprotected by the Government, he had to surrender to the Jihadist onslaught. In the circles of underground liberal dissidents in Egypt and the Arab world al Kimmi is seen as a genuine "rebel." In some chat rooms on paltalk al Kimmi is loved by the rebellion. Some say with irony, that he can cause more problems to the mind of the terrorists than the ongoing American-led campaign.

Al Kimmi is the opposite of Darth Vader in Star Wars. While Lord Veder shifted from the Republic to the dark side, al Kimmi is a Jedi who shifted from the dark side to the rebellion. But he is isolated and repressed. Will the other Jedis coem to his rescue?

Walid Phares

Star Wars analyst