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Asia News has posted an article titled “ Al-Azhar’s double game
to Islamize Egypt and maintain power” that looks at the role of Al-Azhar
in the Islamization of Egypt. The
article begins:
01/14/2013 16:06 EGYPT -Cairo (AsiaNews) – After replacing the heads
of the Constitutional Court, officials close to the Islamist line
President Mohamed Morsi and the passage of the Constitution, only the
University of al-Azhar has the power and the authority to stop the
spread of Islamic extremism in Egypt. The entrance of the Sharia into
civil law concerns not only the Christian minority, but also Muslims.
Until now, the most important university of Sunni Islam has maintained a
moderate position and more than once its Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb gave
the impression of being on the side of the secular opposition against
the establishment dominated by Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis. However,
according to the great scholar of Islam Samir Khalil Samir, such
behavior is just a tactic employed by al-Azhar to maintain power.
Starting from the very history of the university, responsible for the
formation of thousands of imams, the priest examines the situation in
Egypt, a victim of an Islam that uses ignorance and illiteracy to
dominate the population. The constitution based on Sharia law approved
in December is the result of this strategy and will not turn Egypt into
an Islamic state. It is confusing and full of contradictions and is
being used by Islamists to show the Egyptians that they are ‘true
Muslims.’ For the scholar of Islam, al-Azhar has a great responsibility
in the current situation in the nation. The university forms all imams
in Egypt and most of the Sunni Muslim religious authorities throughout
the world. For centuries, al-Azhar, has followed the ruling power. The
rector of the University is appointed by the President of the Republic.
The expenses of the organization and the formation of its imams are
largely paid for by the government. As a result its support for the
Constitution that binds civil law with Islamic law and its future
support to the Muslim Brotherhood is not surprising. On the one hand the
university presents itself as the spokesman for more balanced and
representative Sunni Islam. On the other, it is opposed to the
Salafists, but only because the majority of the population considers
them too extreme. By supporting them, it would lose support.
Red the rest here.
U.S. media has reported on the struggle for control over Al-Azhar in
Egypt, an important mosque and one of the oldest educational
institutions in the Islamic world. According to a Washington Post
report:
The revolution that began here two years ago with calls for justice
and freedom has become a rout by Islamist forces that have racked up
victory upon victory at the polls. But within Egypt and across the
region, the real source of fears that the country is careening toward
theocracy lies in an unlikely place: the ancient stone corridors of
al-Azhar, a Cairo mosque and university complex that has long been known
as a respected beacon of moderation. This month, the Muslim Brotherhood
held funerals at al-Azhar mosque for members who were killed in clashes
with secular demonstrators. That reputation is under threat, as far
more hard-line elements of Egypt’s Islamic mosaic stage a rear-guard
action for control. It is a battle that will gain newfound urgency on
Saturday, when voters are expected to approve a draft constitution that
gives al-Azhar extraordinary power to pass judgment on the religious
merits of the nation’s laws. Al-Azhar leaders say they didn’t want the
role but were pressured to accept it by adherents to a puritanical,
Saudiinfluenced school of Islam known as Salafism, whose clout has
surged in Egypt’s newly democratic era. “The Salafis want to make Azhar a
part of the political system, which we are against,” said Abdel
Dayem-Nossair, an adviser to al-Azhar’s grand sheik and a member of the
assembly that wrote the new constitution. “We don’t like to put the law
in terms of a religious dogma that says ‘ This is right’ or ‘ This is
wrong.’ ” But under the new constitution, that is exactly what the
millennium-old institution will soon be doing. Dayem-Nossair said he
believes the Salafis insisted on the provision because “they think
they’ll take over al-Azhar.” The fight over al-Azhar’s nature and role
is one with profound implications for Egypt, but also far beyond. As
much as anything, the Arab Spring uprisings and the tumult that followed
have turned on the question of where Islam fits in society and who gets
to interpret Islam. Al-Azhar has played a venerated role in that debate
for centuries. It is widely considered the most distinguished center of
Sunni Islamic thought, and it annually educates millions of students,
many of whom travel here from across the globe.
Read the rest here.
Numerous earlier posts have covered the changing nature of Al-Azhar:
- A post from last
November reported on a speech given by Global Muslim Brotherhood
leader Youssef Qaradawi before Friday prayers at the Al-Azhar Mosque in
Cairo, his first speech ever at Al-Azhar and where he called for Arabs
and Muslims to unite In confrontation With Israel.
- A post from October
reported that Salah Soltan, a notorious anti-Semite and formerly part of
the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood,, had been appointed as Secretary General
of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIF) attached to the
Egyptian Ministry of Waqf. The appointment was made by the Minister Dr.
Talaat Mohamed Afify Salem who has been described as a member of the Salafist movement in Egypt and as an “ally” of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Ministry of Waqf (Islamic Endowment) is reported to have influence over Al-Azhar.
- A post from May
reported on what was describef as a “first-of-its-kind” meeting between
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Azhar leaders.
- A post from Npvember
2011reported that a Muslim Brotherhood rally in Cairo held at the Al
Azhar Mosque was a “venomous anti-Israel protest” that featured calls to
“kill all the Jews.
- In March 2010, a post reported
on the appointment of Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed al-Tayeb as head of
Al-Azhar, replacing Mohammed Sayed Tantawi who had died recently on a
trip to Saudi Arabia.
- In October 2008, posts reported on the election of Qaradawi to the Islamic Research Council of Al-Azhar.
For other reports on the battle for control of Al-Azhar, go
here,
here, and
here.
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