Farag Foda (Egyptian Arabic: فرج فوده, IPA: [ˈfɑɾˤɑɡ ˈfoːdæ]), also Faraj Fawda, (1946 - June 8, 1992) was an important Egyptian thinker, human rights activist, writer, and columnist.
Based in Cairo, he was noted for his critical articles and sharp satires about Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt. In many newspaper articles, he demonstrated weak points in Islamic ideology. Among other things he exposed Egypt's most popular preacher, Abd al-Hamid Kishk, for "telling his audience that Muslims who entered paradise would enjoy eternal erections and the company of young boys draped in earrings and necklaces," and promising them "an eternity of blissful pederasty."[1]
He was shot to death in his office on 8 June 1992 by two Islamic fundamentalists from the Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya group. His son and other bystanders were seriously wounded in the attack.
Before his death, Farag Foda was accused of blasphemy by Al-Azhar.[2] An Al-Azhar scholar, Mohammad Al-Ghazali, a witness before the court, declared it was not wrong to kill an apostate. Al-Ghazali said: "The killing of Farag Foda was in fact the implementation of the punishment against an apostate which the imam (the state) has failed to implement (undertake)."
One of Foda's killers, Abd al-Shafi Ahmad Ramadhan, was sentenced to death on 30 December 1993 and executed on 26 February 1994. The other was executed for another murder.
Books of Farag Foda: (in Arabic):