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Islamic centre redefines political role in Egypt
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Business English: Islamic centre redefines political role in Egypt
The ancient Al Azhar mosque in Cairo is struggling to regain its prestigeBuoyed by a generation of militant young clerics, the world's premier Islamic centre of learning is struggling to re-emerge from decades of relative inconsequence to become a major force in Egypt and the region.
Al Azhar, a thousand-year-old mosque and school stripped of its potency under previous regimes, played an important role in Egypt's uprising against Hosni Mubarak a year ago. Freed from political constraints, Al Azhar is trying to redefine itself in a fragmented Sunni Muslim theological landscape.
"We are not left or right but in the centre," said Anas Sultan, a young cleric who took part in the Tahrir Square protests that drove Mr Mubarak from power. "And the centre for us means that we are fighting at the time of war and pacifist in the time of peace," he said. "Being in the centre doesn't mean that we're passive, silent and happy. That's naive. The middle is to do everything at its proper time."
Long the unchallenged seat of Islamic thinking and scholarship, Al Azhar lost prestige after mosques and educational institutions were formally separated and placed under strict state controls in the early 1960s. In the ensuing decades, versions of political Islam, various austere strains of the faith and a new crop of television preachers chipped away at Al Azhar's street clout.
"Al Azhar over the last 30 years was weak because Egypt was weak, and the regime was corrupt," said Mahmoud Azab, a senior adviser to the institution's grand imam, Mohammad Ahmed al-Tayeb.
But just as the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 created new possibilities and potentially rivalries among Shia theologians, the freeing of Egypt's religious institutions from the control of the secular state has created a new factor in a Sunni world.
Al Azhar's many institutions include its mosque, a university with 22,000 students, a secondary school with 11,000 students and a publishing house. Though formally separate, in practice the mosque, schools and universities overlap and remain under the same overall leadership. Al Azhar also exercises authority over the Justice Ministry institute that issues religious legal rulings or fatwas.
Since the revolution, Al Azhar has tried to assert itself by espousing a moderate, tolerant brand of Islam that embraced the youths' call for change. Within days of the uprising Grand Sheikh Tayeb urged security forces not to attack demonstrators and declared anyone who died in Tahrir Square a martyr.
Over the summer, Al Azhar released an 11-point document that endorsed democracy, pluralism, religious tolerance and civil liberties while asserting the independence of its institutions. And in January it introduced a proposed bill of rights enshrining freedoms of religion and expression to serve as the basis for the country's future constitution.
The increasingly visible political role of Al Azhar was highlighted when one of its foremost clerics, Emadedin Effat, was shot dead during protests against the ruling supreme council of the armed forces, the elite military officers and Mubarak allies now running the country. Sheikh Sultan, a disciple of the 52-year-old cleric, said his mentor had encouraged Al Azhar students to take part in the uprising and the struggle to shape Egypt's new order. "All the students of Sheikh Emad were in the streets from the very beginning," he said. "We were injured like the other protesters."
Al Azhar remains a fundamentally conservative institution. Though its rank and file flooded the streets to protest against the killing of one of their own, the leadership was muted in its criticism of the military. "They are quiet," said Sheikh Sultan, the young cleric. "To the extent of supporting us, we haven't found that."
Its forays into politics and attempts to connect society may be as much to counter the rising power of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist movement, which both performed well in elections and are poised to dominate the country's politics, and possibly its spiritual life, for years.
Any drive to bolster Al Azhar's standing will also run head-on into the realities of the fractured Sunni Muslim religious structure, which lacks a defined hierarchy and is being constantly challenged by upstarts. It may also take years for Al Azhar to shake off its image as a pliant tool of the Mubarak regime.
"Its association with the state has opened it to a lot of criticism," said Elijah Zarwan, a Cairo-based political analyst. "When the Sheikh al-Azhar announces something in the papers, people listen to it. But there are a lot of other voices: preachers at the mosque, the guy on the street, anyone with a beard."
Dr Mazoub said Grand Sheikh Tayeb, who took over as head of the mosque and the university in 2010, has grand ambitions. He tried to build up interfaith ties with Christians, Jews and Shiites and reached out to secular politicians, all in an attempt to make Al Azhar a centre of Egyptian intellectual life.
But if Al Azhar gains influence, it might be less because of visionary leadership than youthful and energetic clergy connecting to their counterparts on the streets. Sheikh Sultan, who at 23 is one of the youngest preachers in Al Azhar, donned a gas mask and stood alongside protesters during demonstrations against military rule. "Change is going to take a long time," he said. "But today we are refreshed and energised."
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The Financial Times, 23.02.2012
© 2012 The Financial Times,
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