The Guardian Egypt's Islamic scholars reject government-issued Friday sermons In a rebuke to the Egyptian government, the country's top religious scholars have rejected new government measures to standardise Friday sermons, saying such a step would "freeze" the development of religious discourse. The Council of Senior Scholars of Al-Azhar, the Muslim world's most prominent institution, said in a statement on Wednesday that giving clerics pre-written Friday sermons would eventually "superficialise" religious clerics' thinking. The statement adds: "The imam will find himself unable to discuss, debate, and respond to [extremist] ideas and warn people of them." Times of Israel Egypt has not received any request for political asylum from Gulen Egypt says it has not received any request for political asylum by Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of masterminding a failed coup attempt on 15 July. "Egypt has not received any requests by Turkish opposition figure Fethullah Gulen to obtain the right for political asylum in Egypt," Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said. He added in remarks carried by state news agency MENA Wednesday that no information about the matter has been made available until now.