Actor Ahmed Al-Rafei has become the strongest dramatic irony in the Ramadan season in Egypt, as he stole the camera from the series "The Choice", which is one of his heroes, as it became the talk of the media and viewers, not only because of his distinguished performance, but because of the exhumation in his previous views, and instead of celebrating the birth of a star, the trial of the actor began The young man in the media.
Al-Rafii’s name appeared after praising the role of “Omar Rifa’i Surour”, the Mufti of Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, who was killed in clashes on the borders of southern Egypt between the Libyan Armed Forces and the Darnah Revolutionary Shura Council in Ramadan before last, and the main partner of former army officer Hisham Ashmawi.
It was not until hours that Al-Rafii was delighted to celebrate his appearance in the 15th episode and write news websites about him until he published a post on Facebook in June 2019 saying, "It is the first time that Egyptians have shown joy in the death of a human being," referring to the Egyptian writer Farag Fouda, who was assassinated. The Islamic Group in 1992.
In the comments on the post, Al-Rafii ridiculed some personalities who contradicted his opinion, and affixed titles such as “Atheist Beheiri” and “Khaled Montaser”, in reference to Islam Beheiri and Khaled Montaser.
Everyone thought that the goal of Al-Rafii’s phone conversation with the broadcaster, Al-Daihi originated in the “paper and pen” program, is nothing but a retraction of what was written, but he came out to his audience in eloquent language sarcastically - without certainly intending - from a message that the "Choice" series tries to pass that "peace be upon you" An ordinary sentence, which is the salutation of Islam and has nothing to do with terrorism.
In his dialogue, Al-Rafei took his studies in Al-Azhar as a shield for his ideas that evaded discussion, and took from his participation in a series that expresses the Egyptian government’s point of view sufficient evidence of his patriotism and support for the armed forces, without seeing this as a clear contradiction to the supporters of the Sisi regime and the Islamists together.
Al-Rafei continued boldly to criticize the thinker Faraj Fouda, because he “directs the pencils of his pens to the minds of our children.” He left little to mention despite his retreat from the word “his death” and replacing it with “his death” at the same time that he described the army’s killers with carcasses and hypocrites, and the killers of Faraj Fouda with dogs And the criminals, then he returned, refusing to describe them as infidels because his Azhar authority prevents him from that, and insisted on making him an artistic dialogue about his role in the series, saying, "Let's talk about this wonderful wedding ... and about the groom Ahmed Mansi and his colleagues."
The loss of both parties to the conflict
concealed Al-Rafei at the time of his broadcasting his dialogue with Al-Mihi, whose publication sparked widespread controversy from the public’s eyes at his expense and all his contributions before the last month, and published a statement in which he affirmed that he did not belong to any of the deviant religious or intellectual currents or groups - as he put it - like the Kharijites Takfiris and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Some have justified Al-Rafei's position that he was influenced by the personality he presents until he embraces her ideas and his fear of the threats he received as soon as his name appears on the sequence of the series "The Choice."
But Al-Rafii, who graduated from the Institute of Performing Arts, completed his studies with Al-Azhar and graduated from the Higher Institute of Islamic Studies, and received a diploma in Islamic graduate studies.
Prior to his latest series, Al-Rafii appeared in artworks such as the second part of the series “The Group”, “The Sun does not extinguish”, and an animated series called “Al-Azhar” and “Great Judges” about the period of the Abbasid rule, and did not make his account on Facebook a platform Open, but limited to a number of friends agree with his ideas contrary to the artistic community.
Al-Azhar in the confrontation
A number of Egyptian writers criticized Al-Rafii’s position, but they did not put it at the center of their conversation. Rather, they criticized the stopping of renewing religious discourse, media, education, and Al-Azhar. They considered Al-Rafii a victim like thousands of Egyptians peacefully expressing extremist views attributed to Al-Azhar through his elders in the form of “casual terrorism”.
What Al-Rafa’i did put al-Azhar in a crisis by adopting his ideas, a crisis that has not ended since 1992 after the killing of Egyptian thinker Faraj Fouda at the hands of two young men from the Islamic group motivated by a statement from the symposium of al-Azhar scholars to disbelieve him, and a fatwa issued by the professor of Islamic faith at Al-Azhar University Mahmoud planted that Ruling on killing the apostate in the necks of the general Muslim.
Perhaps Al-Azhar will not come out today, defending itself, contenting itself with the fatwa of the Egyptian Dar Al Iftaa, watching the series “The Choice”, because it “softens feelings and refines behavior”.
The series "The Choice" has faced accusations of insulting Islam and its symbols, such as the jurist Ibn Taymiyyah, who was attributed to him extremist and false opinions that his loved ones disavowed, and linking phrases that are spoken on the tongues of Muslims such as "God is the helper" and "God willing" with extremism and the forgotten colonel refused to describe the terrorists and his preference to describe them as takfiris, While the side of the army appears to condemn it differently in rhetoric to the soldiers, to emphasize the officers' condemnation more than to confirm their courage.