Finally Al Azhar Succumbs To Egypt's President Al-Sisi's Pressure and Declares Muslim Brotherhood A Terrorist Organisation
New Age Islam Special Correspondent
21 December
2020
The Al
Azhar Fatwa Global Center has declared Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist
organisation. According to the fatwa, joining Muslim Brotherhood and other
terrorist groups was forbidden by Shariah.
The fatwa
said that these terrorist groups including Muslim Brotherhood have distorted
some texts and have presented them out of context to achieve political goals.
This way they have corrupted the land.
In the last
few months, the Egyptian media had increased pressure on Al Azhar to declare
Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation. The Egyptian government had
declared the MB a terrorist organisation in 2013. The Saudi Arabia and the UAE
had declared MB a terrorist organisation in 2014. But the Al Azhar was
reluctant to issue a fatwa against it on the ground that Al Azhar did not want
to be part of any political conflict. Some analysts feel that a dominant
section of Al Azhar's professors and scholars subscribe to the ideology of
Muslim Brotherhood.
In November
this year, the Council of Senior Scholars of Saudi Arabia and UAE classified
Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. And in November some important
personalities of the UAE had contacted Al Azhar's Mohammad Al Tayyeb and asked
him to declare MB a terrorist organisation but the Grand Imam of Al Azhar had
reportedly told them that he did not want to jeopardise the image of Al Azhar
by dragging it into a political conflict.
Therefore,
Al Tayyeb sees the efforts to get MB declared a terrorist organisation as a
political issue.
The reason
behind the Saudi Arabia and the UAE or the Egyptian media upping the ante
against the MB is that after coming to power the US President Joe Biden had
expressed sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood and the latter had congratulated
him. Joe Biden's position on MB is in line with that of Obama who had said that
cracking down on MB was against the approach of Islam.
The fatwa
has been issued by the Al Azhar Fatwa Global Centre but the individual
statement of the Grand Mufti of Al Azhar Mohammad Ahmad Al Tayyeb endorsing the
fatwa has not come giving rise to the speculation that there is a sharp
disagreement among the senior scholars of Al Azhar on the issue and the fatwa
has been issued under the pressure of the government.
The reason
for this speculation is that in November and December this year about a dozen
imams and preachers of mosques were dismissed due to their affiliation with the
Muslim Brotherhood. On December 1, 2020, the Minister of Religious Endowments
Mohammad Mokhtar Gomaa issued the letter dismissing Abdul Rahman Ahmad Qandil
from service. According to the letter, he will not be allowed to lead prayers,
mount the pulpit or give lessons in any mosque in the country.
Earlier in
July, two imams were dismissed.
Similar
letters have also been issued against other imams and preachers according to
the order of the Supreme Court.
In November
2019, an advocate Samir Sabry had filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Administrative
Court of Egypt against imams and preachers serving in mosques having links with
the Muslim Brotherhood.
In November
2020 the Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawki Allam had presented quotations from books
of the scholars of Al Azhar as their testimony to the fact that the Muslim
Brotherhood has a deviant ideology that led to the killing of innocent people,
assassinations, acts of destruction and sedition.
It speaks
of the difference of opinion between Sheikh of Al Azhar Al Tayyeb and Grand
Mufti of Egypt Shawki Allam.
It has been
the policy of the US to support and strengthen extremist Islamic groups in
Muslim countries for its own political gains. It remains to be seen what policy
Biden adopts on Muslim Brotherhood.
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