Sayed Al Qemani has written numerous books on Islamic reform, and was an unrelenting critic of Islamic fundamentalists in his weekly Rose Al Yussuf column. Earlier this month, after receiving death threats, Al Qemani announced an early retirement and recanted all his previous writings.

You’ve had other death threats. Why are you stopping now?
I know the language of the extremist Islamists and the language of the statements and I knew from their last statement that I had to repent. I trusted the statement and I knew that, unlike the others, I would have to listen to this one and respond. My kids are now living with me, in my house. Before they weren’t. I didn’t listen to the other threats. Now I do.

Are these death threats a response to anything specific that you wrote or did?
Yes of course. But I can’t say what. It was from interviews I did with journalists. I can’t say more. They have been published. Go find them. I can’t tell you. You are asking me to speak about things that are forbidden.

Were you pressured by friends or authorities to stop?
No. The truth is that the authorities ignored the threats for four days. I was trying to get ahold of them. The threats gave me a week to announce my repentance of all that I had written. I contacted the police and nobody answered. So finally I issued my statement announcing that I would stop writing. Only after the media responded did the police start to care. I have two guards outside my door, but we’re in Egypt. You think this is enough? You saw Sharm. There were 200 soldiers guarding the hotels and they got hit. One of my guards has bilharzia, the other is sick too. What are they going to protect?

If you stop writing, haven’t the terrorists won?
No, I don’t care about anything that I have written. I care about my life. If I kept writing, I would have been killed, even if I was in the middle of Lazoghli, or in Sharm. I understand these people. I know well what they want and I gave it to them.

After the attacks in Sharm Al Sheikh, don’t we need people like you to stand firm?
It doesn’t have to be me. There are lots of people who can write. Do I have to write alone? Let the liberal Egyptians write. I’m not the only one who can do this. Let other voices speak up. I don’t have to die for my pride. I need to live because I have kids and little girls who need me.