Osama Dorra…’atheist’ disowned Muslim Brotherhood

“Those people (i,e Muslim Brotherhood members) made themselves the religion’s guards and bearers of the religions banner, believing that they are in a sacred mission. They see themselves the best and the closest people to God. However, they lie and go back on their promises; they strike suspicious deals; they disseminate rumours that serve their inclination; they sanctify their leaders; they backbite their opponents; they delay applying the social justice when it contradicts their own security. Is that a religion? therefore my religion is unlike yours,” said Dorra, justifying why he dissented from the group.

His words gave a brief on a state of psychological trauma that shrouded him due to the contradictions of the group, which was established by Hassan al-Banna in 1928.

Dorra’s rise to fame started when he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood; he wrote a book titled “From the Brotherhood…I Speak.” His book discusses the group’s lack of active role inside the society and how the Muslim Brotherhood members’ behaviour harmed Islam via “legitimising” their deeds in the same of Islam.

“Are we the reason?, we have taken Islam as a partisan logan, we have made Islam a weapon to fight with ... Did we become as a barrier between the ruler and Islam?…Did we drive people away God’s path, unintentionally?,” Dora wrote.

Difference with the group

Such questions are fired in the Brotherhood youth’s minds. Those youth, at the beginning, have no encouragement to face the truth. They make excuses for its members and leaders, who trying to convince those youth that the brotherhood is the only safer shelter for them in the society. Due to Dorra’s deep and hard thinking, he transported these questions to his book. That is why many newspapers pursued him to publish his opinions and criticism against the group.

The book caused him a trouble with the group, which never forgive disobedience. Some young members tried to revoke his membership after he made a long interview with a newspaper. However, the membership was kept when Abdel-Mouneim Abou el-Fetouh, the group shura council member, intervened.

Dorra took part in January 25, 2011. After Mubarak has stepped down, he wrote a book titled “rom the Brotherhood….to Tahrir Square.” He discusses the Brotherhood’s role before and during the revolution. His book also has advice and tips for the group after the revolution. Also, he wrote about some of his situations in Tahrir square.

The 2011 Revolution has waked freedoms up inside the youth and enhanced Dorra’s spirit of rebellion; on May 2011, he announced his dissidence and resigned from the group. Since then, he has openly criticised the Muslim Brotherhood.

In his resignation letter, Dorra slammed the Freedom and Justice Party- Muslim Brotherhood’s political party. “Decision makers of the Brotherhood’s Shura Council are very old; they are (in the council) since the 1960s. They dashed our hope and revived the group’s old strategy. They melted the group inside in more disturbing way,” the resignation read.

Apostasy from Islam

Although Dorra left the group, he could not get rid of its religious opinions, which cast doubt on Islam. He announced his apostasy from Islam on October 24, 2012; four months after the Muslim Brotherhood took power in Egypt.

“Many people attribute the change of my belief to my old belonging to the Brotherhood and to my long argue with it…But they are twisting the truth; they want to indicate that the problem is mainly about stubbornness,” he said.

Dora was proudly saying that he was braver than others, who has no courage to follow him. Since Dorra has disowned the group, he announced that he is living in a transition period of his life until finding another way with a different ideology.