Salama Moussa

Salama Moussa (or Musa; 4 February 1887 – 4 August 1958) (Arabic: سلامه موسى pronounced [sæˈlæːmæ ˈmuːsæ]) was an Egyptian journalist, writer and political theorist. Salama Moussa was an avowed secularist, he introduced the writings of Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud to Egyptian readers. Salama Moussa campaigned against traditional religions and urged the Egyptian society to embrace European thought, he espoused the theory of evolution by natural selection. He was an Egyptian nationalist. He was an advocate of liberalism and a supporter of the Egyptian liberal movement. Salama Moussa is from Taha Hussein's generation; Naguib Mahfouz called Salama Moussa his "spiritual father", whereas Salama Moussa acknowledged his own intellectual debt to Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed. Salama Moussa joined al-Wafd party after Saad Zaghloul became the leader, he believed it to be essentially a call to independence. He looked for political and economic independence of Egypt from the British occupation. He popularised the idea of socialism in Egypt and advocated egalitarian socialism. He was jailed in 1946 for criticizing the monarchy. Salama Moussa emphasized the unity of the Egyptians, he praised Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed for "paving the way for the revolution of 1919 by uniting the Egyptian nation on a national stance".