Infidel hashtags: Atheist trend

Is atheism a trend in Egypt? What pushes Egyptian Muslims towards atheism? What is the traditional conservative Muslim intelligentsia doing in response. A few emerging Twitter hashtags help reveal some of the answers.

"There is a wave of atheism sweeping Egypt," this statement is often repeated online and in Egyptian talk shows, usually in the context of warning against the lash back on the push by Salafist clerics to reduce personal freedoms. Twitter has recently been flooded with hashtags that bring together Arab atheists. Hashtags with names like "diaries of an embarrassed X-Muslim" or the sarcastic "Islamic books that have benefited humanity."

The discourse on the hashtags reveals that atheism is probably just an elite phenomenon in Egypt, it has the potential to cause some very serious social disturbances, but it will by no means have any significant demographic impact in the near future. However, the logic for leaving Islam presented in these hashtags is very diagnostic and might be a pointer to major issues that Muslim societies will have to struggle with in the long run. Although the hashtags are meant for Arabs, the overwhelming majority of people posting are Egyptian Muslims with significant contributions from the Gulf and the Levant and noticeable absence of posts from North Africa. However, the issues raised are most likely common to all Arab countries.

First, what are the main reasons given for leaving Islam? These can be broken down into a few clear categories:

• Salafist fatwas: This is perhaps the largest category. Commentary on Salafist fatwas and their detachment from reality is sharp and clear. One can detect a level of  bitterness at Salafists for allegedly forcing some posters into a conflict with their own religion.
• Islamic history: The typical post would take an event from Islamic history where there was excessive use of violence, or excessive decadence and bring it to the forefront of the conflict. Foremost among the events are the Islamic conquests of the Middle East and North Africa and the great chasm that separates contemporary non-Islamic source accounts of the conquests from the common Muslim perception. But also very important are stories of the Sahaba, the companions of the prophet. Due to the near-prophetic stature Salafism has given to this group of people, they make very easy targets.
• Eccentricities of medieval jurisprudence (fiqh): The main issue here is the peculiar and specific nature of medieval jurisprudence and the useless tangents it seems to go into. This conflicts with the concept of Sunni Islam as a religion without a clergy. 
• Historicity of Quranic stories: This takes a leaf out of the book of criticism of the Bible. However, because the Quran is structured differently, the sharpness of the issue is less clear and thus this appears only as a side issue.
• Scientific "miracles" in the Quran:  What some well-meaning but ignorant Muslims think is a great way to strengthen faith turns out to be a surprisingly important component of many Muslims losing faith. While the Quran never claimed to be either a history or a science book, Muslims insist on forcing this role on it. Once exposed to any level of scientific scrutiny, the synthetic and contrived "scientific miracles" of the Quran fall apart instantly, bringing down with them the faith of many.
• Moral code: Polygamy, wife beating, slavery, female genital mutilation, inequality of sexes, persecution of minorities, and persecution based on ideas are major issues for many Egyptian "atheists." One person summarized his concern in a tweet (paraphrased): "If I live in a society that endorses pedophilia, persecutes minorities, considers the enslavement and rape of prisoners of war good, but is bothered by two adults having a private relationship, then I have a problem"

So are there any mainstream Muslim responses to these issues? The hashtags are naturally frequented by Muslims who respond, and again the responses can be broken down into a few major classes:

• This is not the right Islam: This forms the overwhelming majority of responses. The concerns X-Muslims have are dismissed as misunderstandings, aberrations, or myths. This is particularly effective when responding to concerns about Salafism or Islamic history but becomes foggy when the moral code and jurisprudence is concerned.
• You have to feel this not think about it: The issue is relegated to faith and lack thereof.
• You should be killed: A surprising number of tweets resort immediately to the controversial Islamic ruling on apostasy. As one "Sheikh" from the Gulf tweeted: "There is nothing like X-Muslim, there are Muslims and there are apostates who we should execute"

The bottom line is that the atheist hashtags are mostly sideline issues. Most Egyptian atheists are not actually concerned about denying the presence of God. In reality the majority are secular Muslims, deists, or at most agnostics. What really concerns most of the people forming the bulk of the "atheist wave" seem to be social and historical issues. Traditional Muslim society often responds by wading deep into said social and historical issues, trying to defend them as essential components of Islamic faith. What Muslims truly need in this respect is to purify the faith back to its essential form. This is, ironically, the original form of Islamic fundamentalism as espoused by reformists such as Mohammed Abdu, before it was abducted by Sayyed Qutb, the founder of modern Islamic fundamentalism.

But it is in the moral code and basic rights that the truly serious clash is shaping out to be. Islamists of all shades are scrambling to establish a state that is neither liberal, nor secular, yet one that gives more rights and preserves more human dignity than a liberal democracy. Human experience, including our own indicates that this will fail. In all cases, however the state ends up looking like, Muslims as a society have to answer some major questions and settle once and for all their positions on: Gender equality, the morality of slavery (regardless of its practicality), use of violence (especially against women), freedom of expression (absolute and protected), and freedom of faith. How Muslim societies reach this, whether it is through radical reconstruction, or classical reinterpretation, is irrelevant. What truly matters is that we must catch up with the rest of humanity.