Ahmed Harkan

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Ahmed Harkan (2018)

Ahmed Hussein Harkan ( Arabic أحمد حسين حرقان, DMG Aḥmad Ḥusayn Ḥarqān , born December 10, 1982 in Alexandria ) is an Egyptian atheist and human rights activist. He romanizes his last name (حرقان Harqān ) as Harkan, the spelling Harqan is also common in the press. With his then wife Nada Mandour (Sally Harqan), the ex-Muslim and blogger founded the Internet television Free Mind TV, which is used as a discussion platform. Harkan appeared several times on official Egyptian television stations to stand up for the rights of non-religious citizens . On March 31, 2020, Ahmad Harkan announced his accession or return to Islam on his official YouTube channel.

Life

Ahmed Harkan discusses the current taboo on sexuality in the Middle East (2017).

Harkan was born into a strictly religious family and, as a young adult, received training from the Salafist Sheikh Yasir Burhami (Yasser Borhamy), an initiator and functionary of the Party of Light . He left Islam in June 2010 after a long period of doubt about religious dogmatics and practices. Harkan redesigned his life based on rationality , enlightenment and criticism of religion . His mother was shocked when he revealed his atheism to her . Burhami (Borhamy) sent him to a psychiatrist, who came to the conclusion that Harkan was by no means a mentally ill person, but simply an atheist. The sheikh rejected the doctor's diagnosis, insisting that the young man was suffering from the "disease of doubt".

Since his apostasy , Ahmed Harkan has been one of the few Egyptian non-believers who dare to speak openly about their atheism. Egyptian television stations invited him to discussions in which Harkan campaigned for equality and social acceptance of non-religious fellow citizens.

On October 25, 2014, he and his then-pregnant wife Nada ("Sally") Mandour were attacked by a crowd of Islamic radicals. With minor injuries, they escaped and went to a police station. Four days earlier, on October 21, Harkan explained on the TV show Taht al-Kubry ( Under the Bridge ) why he had become an atheist (Channel Al-Qahera wal-Nas, with Tony Khalifa) and why Islam was one severe or brutal religion. The police did not help him, but beat him up and arrested him. Harkan's lawyer was expelled from the police station by the police. His pregnant wife suffered a miscarriage. Harkan has been charged with blasphemy, including asking on a talk show "What did ISIS do that Mohammed didn't do?" And denigrating religion under Article 98 of the Egyptian Penal Code.

The couple separated in 2016. On March 24, 2015, Harkan took part in a public discussion of non-religious Egyptians, moderated by Amr Ezzat. The host was the Religion and Freedoms Forum (RFF) at the headquarters of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

On November 3, 2015, Harkan discussed on Al-Assema TV at the invitation of Rania Mahmoud Yassin (daughter of the actor Mahmoud Yacine). After the hostess admitted that she wanted to set it off as a chilling example ("We are presenting an idea so that people can learn from it. Yes, so that people can learn a lesson from atheism, heresy and all these nefarious phenomena in society. Shameful ideas ! "), Harkan said that he could leave the show and Yassin replied," Good, go. Go away. We don't want any atheists or infidels here anyway, ”Harkan left the studio in protest.

In mid-October 2019, Harkan wanted to travel from Egypt to Tunisia to marry his fiancée, but was detained at the airport by security forces, prevented from leaving the country without an official court order and taken to prison. This was his third unsuccessful attempt to leave Egypt in three years. On October 30, 2019, Harkan went on hunger strike because of his travel ban .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Defying Taboo, Middle East Atheists Launch TV Channel" . By Heather Murdock. Voice of America, April 30, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Egypt's 'war on atheism'" . From passer-by Darwish. Al-Ahram , January 14, 2015.
  3. ^ "Egypt's Atheists Struggle to be Heard, Not Jailed" . By Elizabeth Arrott. December 5, 2013. (Said Ahmed Hussein is Ahmed Hussein Harkan, note)
  4. ↑ Ahmed Harkan and Nada Mandour (Sally Harqan) report on the attack on October 25, 2014. "Atheist Egyptian couple escape a lynch mob, only to be beaten by the police" .
  5. ↑ MEMRI Clip # 4649 Egyptian Human Rights Activist Ahmad Harqan: ISIS Is Doing what the Prophet Muhammad Did , Middle East Media Research Institute, October 21, 2014.
  6. ^ "Non-believers express their thoughts at Religion and Freedoms Forum" . Egypt Independent. April 1, 2015.
  7. ^ "Who stands against our freedom to be non-believing citizens? A discussion with Egyptian atheists and agnostics activities" . EIPR, March 31, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Amr Ezzat." Max Planck Institute for Research into Multi-Religious and Multi-Ethnic Societies.
  9. ^ With host Rania Mahmoud Yassin, Al-Assema TV: "TV Host Clashes with Egyptian Atheist Live on the Air: We Don't Want Infidels Here" . MEMRI . 3rd November 2015.
  10. ^ After hunger strike: Atheist arrested in Egypt . From Florian Chefai. The Humanist Press Service (hpd), November 7, 2019.
  11. ↑ Petition: To Egyptian ex-Muslim on Hunger Strike , to the Secretary General of the United Nations, change.org, November 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Harkan, Ahmed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harqan, Ahmed Hussein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1982
PLACE OF BIRTH Alexandria