Suspension of Egypt's Tahrir imam spawns new preachers' movement

Coordinator of Egypt's new 'Preachers without Constraints' movement slams suspension of Tahrir Square's Imam Mazhar Shahine for allegedly 'confusing politics with religion'

"We believe there should be one rule that applies equally for all preachers; if politics and religion should be kept apart fully, then this should be the case for those preachers who speak in favour of the regime and those who are critical of it with no discrimination whatsoever," Ahmed El-Bahey, coordinator of 'Preachers without Constraints,' said.
Speaking to Ahram Online, El-Bahey said that his group would support prominent preacher Mazhar Shahine "if he asks for our support" against the decision of Egypt's religious endowments (awkaf) ministry this week suspending him from work for allegedly confusing politics and religion.
"What Sheikh Shahine spoke of, for all we know, were the basics of good governance from an Islamic perspective and with examples from history of the companions of our great Prophet," El-Bahey said. "From our perspective, this is not confusing politics and religion; this is rather relating religion to the daily concerns of Muslims in our society."
El-Bahey criticised that this should be the case with Shahine, "when we know that there are preachers who are daily using the mosques they are working in to promote government politics and policies; we know very well that many mosques have been involved in promoting support for the constitution 'as an Islamic duty' and we know that mosques were used to defame opposition figures – and this is what we call confusing politics, in its partisan sense, with religion."
The ministry decision to suspend Shahine is raising eyebrows among preachers who are taking exception to what they qualify as a systematic attempt by the ruling Muslim Brotherhood to "take control of Islamic preaching."
Shahine is the preacher at Omar Makram Mosque in Tahrir Square, where many protestors found a safe haven during the 18 days of the 25 January Revolution.
His fiery sermons that condemned the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak were often applauded by many political activists.
"When he criticised the foes of the new regime he was never reprimanded, but it seems – and we don't have full recordings of the sermons – that he said something that offended the regime," El-Bahey said.
According to the coordinator of 'Preachers without Constraints,' "If the government is so keen on separating politics and religion, why did it pursue a law that allows the use of religious slogans in parliamentary elections? And is the government aware that this would not just mean using Muslim slogans in the face of liberal forces, but could entail Muslim versus Muslim slogans as in a political combat between Muslim Brotherhood members and Salafist group members?"
El-Bahey argued that the case of Shahine suggests that the regime wants to co-opt preachers at mosques affiliated to the religious endowments ministry as part of "an attempt to control the whole process of Islamic preaching." He added: "This goes against the basic concept of maintaining the independence and dignity of preachers who carry the words of the Almighty and not the words of any ruler or regime."
It is precisely this concern, El-Bahey explained, that prompted the launch of 'Preachers without Borders' some six weeks ago. The movement was started in response to a law that makes the government, through the religious endowments ministry, fully in control of every mosque and strips preachers of their long-established right to choose material for their sermons.
"A preacher is supposed to be addressing the concerns of those mosque goers that he talks to, as well as those from wider society; a preacher is not supposed to be instructed by the government on what to say," El-Bahey said.
In the case of Shahine, the law that angered those preachers who started a movement for the independence of Islamic preaching are coupled with what critics qualify as a move by the Muslim Brotherhood to marginalise and possibly remove Al-Azhar Grand Imam Mohamed El-Tayyeb.
Last week, a limited group of Al-Azhar students protested against the grand imam and demanded his dismissal after some Al-Azhar University students got food poisoning after eating bad meals at the university's dormitory.
According to El-Bahey, the grand imam's executive prerogatives are far too limited to allow him to take all the blame for the food poisoning problem. "This is not to mention the fact that the state is giving Al-Azhar University a much smaller budget than those given to other state universities," he said.
Is solidarity with the grand imam, El-Bahey said, his movement was planning to file a lawsuit to demand that he should be the main inspector of the entire set-up of Islamic preaching – away from the religious endowments ministry, which is currently run by a minister with known Muslim Brotherhood affiliations.
"Islamic preaching is a very principled matter; it should not be subjected to partisan agendas and preachers should be spared from the current political feud between regime and opposition," El-Bahey said. "And this should certainly go for Al-Azhar as well."
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