Word: koddus
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Dates: during 1998-1998
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...path to Allah began in earnest one day in 1974 when President Anwar Sadat, Nasser's successor, abruptly ordered veteran leaders of the Brotherhood released from prison. Abdul Koddus, who was working for a Cairo paper, went to interview them and immediately became attracted to the group and its leader, Omar Tilmisani, who stressed tolerance and exemplary personal behavior. By 1976, Abdul Koddus had stopped drinking alcohol, married the daughter of a prominent Muslim preacher and joined the Brotherhood...
Since then, Abdul Koddus has been on the knife-edge of Egyptian politics. Writing in Al Shaab, Cairo's main opposition newspaper, he campaigns for democratic elections and release of political prisoners, not knowing whether government tolerance will give way to another jail term...
...conversations in his spacious salon overlooking the Nile, Abdul Koddus stresses the Brotherhood's desire to adopt the best of Western values. "I ask for political freedom for everybody," he says, rejecting the goal of militant groups to establish an Islamic dictatorship. Yet he believes that British author Salman Rushdie should be put on trial for blasphemy, and he refuses to condemn Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, convicted on terrorism charges in New York City. And there can be no peace with Israel, he adds, so long as the Jewish state occupies Jerusalem...
...Abdul Koddus says he is confident his vision of Islam will prevail in Egypt and across the Arab world. Recent patterns seem to support his view: while secular governments have contained, if not eliminated, terrorist groups, they have enjoyed less success in holding back the tide of Islam as a political force. In Algeria and Turkey, for example, Islamic parties won stunning electoral victories. Though the triumphs were later reversed by military-backed crackdowns, that only confirmed the potency of their challenges...
...somebody with Abdul Koddus' secular upbringing can turn to Islam for the solution, many others will eventually do so too. Abdul Koddus even got the blessing of his father, an editor and novelist known for his racy, romantic themes. "I could have chosen a completely different path, but my father did not object," says Koddus. "The way I see it, if Islam and liberalism can exist in one household, they can exist in the same society." And, with that, Abdul Koddus excused himself and went to pray...