His bedroom is at one end of a dusty old apartment on a chaotic street in the center of the city. At the other end is his office, his desk piled high with papers. In between are books — some 30,000 of them — arranged neatly on floor-to-ceiling shelves. One section is devoted to the 100 or so books he has written and translated over the course of his lifetime.

"Gamal al-Banna has opinions that fall outside the scope of religion. The people, of course, oppose anybody who talks about things that violate religion."

He doesn’t press his ideas, but instead takes the long-term view, hoping to plant a few seeds that will, in time, take root and spread. He recognizes that, at the moment, the other side is winning the contest of ideas in Egypt, and the region.

"If religion was correctly understood, it would be a power of liberation. But it is misunderstood, and so it is driving us backward."

"My idea is that man is the aim of religion, and religion only a means. What is prevalent today is the opposite."

"They don't want freedom of thought. Free thought, that will condemn them."