Muhammad: The "Banned" Images Blog Free Speech at Risk

A Phoenix Rises in Alexandria

In a region of the world being suffocated by the mysticism of Islam, there stands a man of reason. In this region that longs for the darkness of ignorance, there stands a champion of education and of the Enlightenment. In a world of appeasers, there stands a man of conviction and courage. His name is Ismail Serageldin. He is the director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt.

His mission is to make the library "a worthy successor to the Ancient Library of Alexandria. That great Library was a unique ecumenical effort of the human intellect and imagination, and remains engraved in the memories of all scientists and intellectuals to this day."

He openly embraces early Renaissance Muslims such as Ibn al-Nafis who promoted scholarly inquiry and scientific investigation -- a healthy this-worldly turn away from the supernaturalism of the Dark Ages. As the NYT puts it, "[h]is goal is to help spark the Arab world's own age of reason . . ." And he condemns Islamists and statists who, he argues, are the enemies of liberty.

Mr. Serageldin is a man of mixed philosophic premises in that he attempts to reconcile reason and faith. But it is beyond remarkable for a prominent individual, who lives where fatwas are issued like they are parking tickets, to say: "let us not be afraid of opinions and ideas."

http://www.bibalex.org/aboutus/message_en.aspx

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/world/middleeast/03egypt.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=a%20voice%20in%20egypt&st=cse