— Global Voices Report: “Egypt: The Egyptian Apostate”
— Report: “Egyptian progressive thinker, Dr. Sayed El Qemany was granted the State Award for Social Sciences. Egyptian liberals and seculars hailed the award while Wahabis and conservatives declared war on the ‘Egyptian Apostate'”
— Facebook group supporting Dr. Sayed El Qemany
— Report quotes Dr. Sayed El Qemany: “The State Award is not given to anyone based on the degree of his piety or his following of Islam – we are in Egypt not in Saudi Arabia. The award is granted to Egyptian icons who have avidly applied the ethics and basics of scientific research reaching conclusions and facts based on true references without tampering or twisting. Once again, the State Award is not a religious award.”
— Report quotes Tarek Heggy addressing Dr. El Qemany: “Granting you this award – last given to Taha Hussein half a century ago – is a well deserved honor; it is a celebration of the scholar and thinker whose publications are each worthy of the most prestigious of awards. Your publications assumed leadership in three fields; comparative religions, the study of the history of Islam and Islamic dogma, and modernism, post modernism, and contemporary studies”
=– Egyptian Editor Hassan El Helali also reports that the recent winner of the Egyptian State Award for Social Sciences award, Dr. Sayed El Qemany, is being threatened with “excommunication” and “incitements to kill” by Islamist individuals, leaders, and organizations, including Egyptian Grand Sheik Ali Gomaa and the Muslim Brotherhood.
— According to this report, Dr. Sayed El Qemany has issued “an appeal to the world’s conscience from the Egyptian writer and academic researcher of Islamic Affairs Dr. Sayed Mahmoud El Qemany who is being exposed to incite to assassinate him.”
=– The reports of such Islamist pronouncements and threats demonstrate the continuing threat of such organizations to freedom, equality, liberty, and democracy, and  demonstrate why those of us who support our Universal Human Rights must never endorse or legitimize anti-democratic organizations and ideologies.