By Wagih Wahba –
A few days ago, the media carried news of the signing of a cooperation protocol between Benha University and Al-Azhar Mosque, aimed at supporting and strengthening cooperation in religious, cultural, and enrichment-related fields. The signing was attended by the university president and a number of senior Al-Azhar officials.
The university president expressed the university’s pride in hosting an Al-Azhar Riwaq on campus, stressing that Al-Azhar has spared no effort in supporting the university through its scholars and learning, thereby contributing to the preservation of national identity and moral values and enhancing students’ awareness in confronting extremist ideas.
One may well ask: Is it not already the function of civil universities to preserve national identity and moral values and confront extremist ideas? Why bring in an outside institution to perform some of their essential functions?
And if the purpose of such protocols is indeed to combat extremism within civil universities, then another question arises: When and to what extent has Al-Azhar itself succeeded in confronting extremist thought within its own halls and educational institutions? Or is it, as some people say, a case of “the carpenter’s door hanging off its hinges”?
Perhaps.
History, recent events, and statistics all show that many killers and instigators of extremism and terrorism emerged from, were nurtured by, and graduated from this venerable religious institution.
For example, do you remember the “Mufti of Terrorism,” Omar Abdel Rahman, who died in an American prison? Do you remember Salem Rahhal, Abdullah Azzam, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram in Nigeria, Mohammed Ahmed Ali (Abu Osama al-Masri), Mohsen Farmawi (Abu Rubaiya al-Masri), Abdul Rasul Sayyaf of Afghanistan, and many others?
All of these, along with numerous other extremist terrorists, graduated from Al-Azhar—the stronghold of “moderate Islam,” as it is often described.
And should we forget the epicenter of rebellion and mutiny at Al-Azhar University following June 30, 2013, when acts of violence, vandalism, and road blockades were committed—events that remain visible on social media to this day?
And should we forget the horrific terrorist assassination of Egypt’s Prosecutor General by a car bomb in June 2015, and how many individuals affiliated with Al-Azhar, whether professors or students, took part in it?
We do not generalize, but rather leave the numbers and the events to speak for themselves.
Let us return to the news of the protocol’s signing. It stated:
“The university president affirmed that the protocol aims to strengthen cooperation between Benha University and Al-Azhar in teaching the Holy Qur’an and its sciences to children and adults, teaching the religious sciences, and promoting a proper understanding of Islam’s tolerant teachings according to Al-Azhar’s moderate methodology through numerous programs designed to instill religious values…”
The Deputy of Al-Azhar stated:
“Benha University is the first Egyptian university to host an Al-Azhar Riwaq on its campus”—(and it certainly will not be the last, for the first drops herald the coming rain)—and indicated that this comes within the framework of the directives Grand Imam Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb, Sheikh of Al-Azhar, to expand the dissemination of Al-Azhar’s educational and missionary message throughout the governorates of the Republic through Al-Azhar’s Riwaqs, which seek to consolidate the values of moderation and balance and to build enlightened religious and intellectual awareness among young people.
Here we ask:
Why not simply “Azharize” all civil universities and formally attach them to Al-Azhar University in broad daylight, instead of circling around the issue through the Islamization of the educational sphere under the sponsorship of religious institutions?
A few weeks after the January 2011 uprising, on May 3, 2011, newspapers reported that a delegation from the Muslim Brotherhood headed by the Supreme Guide visited Grand Imam Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb, Sheikh of Al-Azhar, and held a closed meeting with him.
After the meeting, Sheikh al-Tayeb stated:
“The Muslim Brotherhood has never been absent from Al-Azhar. It has a strong presence within the institution of Al-Azhar. Half of the Brotherhood’s members are Azharites, and there is no war between Al-Azhar and the Brotherhood.”
The Grand Imam is necessarily speaking truthfully. If, as he said, half of the Brotherhood are Azharites, and if the Brotherhood is, as the law describes it, a terrorist organization, then that would mean that there are at least hundreds of thousands of Azharites who are terrorists in the eyes of the law.
And as for his statement that the Brotherhood has a strong presence within Al-Azhar—and we believe him—the question remains:
What is the extent of that institutional presence today?
And is there anyone who can solve for us this puzzle—the puzzle of a religious institution described as embodying moderation and balance while at the same time never ceasing to produce terrorists?
Where does the fault lie?
Or have matters become confused because of the oppressive heat and suffocating religious domination?
On May 1, 2018, newspapers published remarks by Grand Imam Dr. al-Tayeb delivered at a conference in Indonesia, in which he stated:
“The Azhar educational methodology represents the moderation of Islam and a balanced understanding of the texts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. From a very early age, it instills in students a culture of dialogue and the legitimacy of disagreement. It protects them from tendencies toward extremism, fanaticism, intellectual rigidity, and attachment to a single opinion. It trains them to respect the views of others and teaches them the distinction between respecting a school of thought and adopting it. Contemporary reality confirms this, for no terrorist or practitioner of takfir has graduated from Al-Azhar and been nourished by its knowledge and culture…”
He also warned of the dangers of disputes over schools of thought, which fragment the nation.
Can such statements be reconciled with everything that has been mentioned in this article?
It is not acceptable that anyone should seek to undermine the institution of Al-Azhar or its esteemed Sheikh, who deserves every respect. Al-Azhar represents an important source of Egypt’s soft power abroad.
However, we neither want—nor will we accept—that it be transformed into a hard power at home, one that steadily expands and penetrates state institutions until one day we awaken to find a religious state ruling officially, through its own institutions and personnel, in its own name and form, without the slightest effort and without the slightest resistance.
___________________
