[VIDEO] Sherif Gaber, Egyptian dissident, shreds the notion that ISIS is not Islamic

Sherif Gaber, an Egyptian dissident in hiding, takes a look at Islam’s bloody history of conquest and concludes that ISIS is extremely Islamic.

Sherif Gaber Isis Islam IslamicIf you haven’t heard the name Sherif Gaber, allow me to educate you about a brave man who, having had an epiphany about the Islamic world in which he was raised, tries his best, even while living in hiding, to educate the world about Islam’s true face. He does not indict all Muslims, but he understands the truth of the faith in which he was raised and will speak about it.

As best as I can tell, until early 2013, when he finally spoke up while a student at the Suez Canal University in Ismailia, Egypt, Gaber was not trying to change the Muslim world. He shared his ideas on social media, but otherwise did not advertise that he was skeptical about some Islamic doctrine. That changed when the professor in his “science” class announced this bit of “scientific” Islamic wisdom: “Homosexuality is a sin. Gays and lesbians shall be crucified in the middle of the streets, stoned, and burned to death!”

Rather than silently accepting this murderous religious indictment in the context of a science class, Gaber spoke up, suggesting that the science class actually look at homosexuality from a scientific, rather than moralistic, perspective. The professor turned on Gaber, harassing and threatening him for the remainder of the class.

Now that the professor knew that Gaber craved knowledge even if it ran counter to Islamic doctrine, the professor joined with other faculty members to scour Gaber’s social media pages for anything that could be deemed “un-Islamic.” The professor than gave to the public prosecutor the papers he had printed up from Gaber’s Facebook. To add insult to injury, he also gave Gaber an “F” in the class.

In October 2013, the state police raided Gaber’s home and arrested him. Eventually, Gaber was released from prison when he paid the government 7500 Egyptian pounds (about $420), 2500 of which was for the “Contempt of Religion” charge and 5000 was for “spreading immoral values and abnormal thoughts that provoke and disturb the public peace and the national security of Egypt.” This payment did not settle the matter. It was more akin to bail, and the government continued to prosecute its case against Gaber.

Eventually, in February 2015, the Egyptian government sentenced Gaber to a year in jail for his seditious un-Islamic activity. Rather than paying 1,000 Egyptian pounds for the right to an appeal, Gaber went into hiding. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

From his hiding place, the internet is giving Gaber a voice. He’s making videos in which he says all of the things that he could not freely say in Egypt. The ones that interest me most are those aimed directly at moderate Muslims and soft-minded Westerners.

Through them Gaber attempts to educate these Islamic apologists about Islam’s bloody, repressive history. His latest effort explains that ISIS is not, as President Obama insisted, “un-Islamic.” Instead, it is absolutely consistent with Islam.

The myriad facts Gaber states in the video go by very quickly, but I urge you to watch the video and, if need be, re-watch it — then share it with your friends. Hearing this indictment in Arabic (close-captioned in English) is almost overwhelming. By the way, close-captioning is in multiple languages. If it doesn’t automatically go to English, click on the settings button — that’s the little gear-shaped thing — to make your choice.

Also, if you are so moved, you can contribute to Gaber’s future video-making here.

Incidentally, I don’t agree with everything Gaber espouses. In his escape from Egypt’s and Islam’s stifling intellectual conditions, he’s embraced Western ideas, such as atheism and support for transgenderism. As to the later, you know that I think the current Western view is as scientifically suspect as Islamic notions about homosexuality. Unlike Islam, however, which wants to kill homosexuals, when it comes to transexuals, I simply believe we do them and society a whole a vast disservice when we accept their body dysphoria as reality, instead of working with them (and tincture of time) to help align their minds and bodies without hormones and surgery.

But I digress. What overwhelms me about Gaber is that, when he gets to Islam’s fundamental lack of enlightenment, he’s right on the money. Take, for example, his challenge to Arab girls to break free of Islam’s misogyny:

Do you remember the NAACP’s old slogan, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”? Gaber reminds us that, aside from its genocidal propensities, one of the worst sins Islam commits, is to waste minds. It envelops them in ignorance and murders them if they seek to escape. Gaber escaped and watching his free mind at work is a wonderful thing.