The recent clash between Al-Azhar and the Ministry of Religious Endowments (awqaf) may be the first crisis of its kind in Egyptian history, with the Muslim Brotherhood being the cause. During the Mohamed Morsi presidency Muslim Brothers began to infiltrate these two religious establishments, and following the fall of his regime these institutions quickly moved to eliminate the infiltrators from their ranks. However, recently some preachers and imams serving with the Ministry of Religious Endowments have begun to complain that Brotherhood leaders are still working for Al-Azhar as advisors to the mufti. According to the Director of the Syndicate of Imams and Preachers Sheikh Mohamed Al-Bastawisi, Brotherhood officials are manoeuvring to seize control over Al-Azhar and oust Ahmed Al-Tayeb. He also referred to a pamphlet produced by the Muslim Brotherhood that, he said, incited hatred against the mufti. “Brotherhood leaders are still playing a critical role in Al-Azhar. I'm amazed that they are still in their posts in spite of the turmoil and chaos they are causing,” he said. Al-Bastawisi specifically accused Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Al-Naggar, director of proselytising at the Islamic Research Academy, of being a Muslim Brotherhood member. Rumours of unknown origin have been circulating through some newspapers to the effect that government agencies have completed a report containing names and facts about the “lobby” that controls Al-Azhar and prevents the venerable institution from performing its role in combating the Muslim Brotherhood and the extremist discourse it uses to justify acts of violence. According to these rumours, the report lists, among others, advisor to the mufti Mohamed Suleimani, the mufti's legal advisor Mohamed Abdel-Salam, director of the technical office Hassan Al-Shafie, and the Islamic thinker Mohamed Emara. Such statements and newspaper reports have ignited a war between the two religious establishments. It has even been suggested that the minister of religious endowments himself has been behind the campaign in order to advance himself in the eyes of the president by suggesting that his ministry was firm and resolute in the fight against the Muslim Brothers while the sheikh of Al-Azhar was lax. The situation quickly escalated to the point where Mohamed Mehanna, a member of the Al-Azhar technical office, announced that Al-Tayeb was considering legal measures against those responsible for the campaign against him. “Al-Azhar intends to take legal measures, especially since the attack against the advisors to Al-Tayeb is systematic and seeks to destroy the institution of the mufti from the inside,” Mehanna said, adding that Al-Tayeb had full confidence in all those who served him and knew very well that they had no connection with the Muslim Brotherhood. An indicator of the temperature of relations between the Ministry of Religious Endowments and Al-Azhar was to be found in the fact that the minister of religious endowments and the grand imam of Al-Azhar avoided meeting each other at Friday prayers in Port Said recently. Both officials suddenly cancelled their plans to attend the Port Said National Day ceremonies for which the ministry had sent a “caravan” of imams and preachers and during which there was cornerstone-laying ceremony for a branch institute of Al-Azhar. Tensions mounted after a newspaper cited “sources close to the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb” as saying that he had received information that the minister of religious endowments was behind the slur campaign against his office and that the minister had told “sovereign agencies” that the office was guilty of “brotherhoodising” Al-Azhar. According to the newspaper accounts, the conflict between the two officials has now rippled down to their respective institutions, to the degree that several members of the Islamic Research Academy boycotted a meeting convened by the academy early last week. When he learned of the planned boycott, the Religious Endowments Minister Mohamed Gomaa also refused to attend. Soon after the dispute began to circulate through the press, Gomaa hastened to contain the damage, especially as it appeared that he would bear a good deal of the brunt of it. In a statement he said that he was greatly indebted to the sheikh of Al-Azhar for the support he had given to him, the Ministry of Religious Endowments and the imams and their activities. “I have the greatest respect and esteem for him. I regard him as both a father and a mentor,” he said and went on to praise Al-Tayeb for his scholarly, patriotic and religious status. “As for work-related issues, everything connected with the activities of the awqaf [ministry] is undertaken by its minister with the blessing and support of the grand imam who does not interfere in any way in the mechanisms of work just as the awqaf does not interfere in any way in the affairs of Al-Azhar, of which he is the senior authority and responsible for it and its institutions.” The minister also stressed that the reason he had not attended the meeting of the Islamic Research Academy was that he had been in Kuwait at the time. He added that he planned to meet with the grand imam in the coming days “to inform him about the actions he has been taking in the service of the Islamic calling under the supervision of His Reverence.” At the same time, a campaign has been launched to defend Al-Tayeb. The Board of the Faculty of Theology at Al-Azhar University issued a press release denouncing “what is being broadcast by some rented satellite television channels and the harsh criticisms they are levelling at the fundamentals and root principles of the faith and at the symbols and leaders of the faith as embodied in the venerable Al-Azhar.” The statement charged that “those voicing those criticisms have no idea what they are saying and merely repeat what is being dictated to them by the adversaries of Islam and the enemies of the nation, these being international Zionism and abominable freemasonry which harbour the deepest spite for Al-Azhar and its sheikhs which they regard as in impenetrable barrier that protects the identity of the nation and its unity and that works to safeguard it from division and disintegration.” The Faculty of Theology Board added that all the scholars of Al-Azhar were duty-bound to defend Al-Tayeb “who is truly the sheikh of Islam and the uncontested imam of the Muslims... The efforts of the imam to mend rifts and promote unity, to protect the nation and defend Islamic sanctities, to champion the oppressed and to reach out to help all the needy in the world and persecuted Muslim minorities are recognised by all, near and far, friend and foe. Only the arrogant and ungrateful would deny the efforts undertaken by the sheikh of Al-Azhar.” Eventually, Al-Tayeb himself felt compelled to release a statement denying the existence of any disputes between Al-Azhar and the ministry of religious endowments and stressing the good relations that existed between himself and Religious Endowments Minister Mohamed Gomaa. Ahmed Al-Tayeb's elder brother, Mohamed Al-Tayeb, told the press that the reports of a crisis between the grand imam of Al-Azhar and the minister of religious endowments were “fantasies in the minds of their authors”. He believed that a campaign was afoot to harm Al-Azhar and its sheikhs and appealed to the media to be more careful in checking the facts of what they published. He added that the grand imam had refused to comment on what had been published regarding the alleged crisis between Al-Azhar and the awqaf. He also denied rumours that his brother was in reclusion. Rather, the grand imam was in Luxor, as always at this time of year. This is where Al-Tayeb issued the statement. In a gesture to demonstrate the government's support for the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb called on Al-Tayeb in his office. This was a message of reassurance that was paralleled by indications that the government was also fully satisfied with the performance of the minister of religious endowments, especially his handling of the remnants of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist leaders. The name Al-Tayeb means “the good” in Arabic, and it is well known that the grand imam has a considerable quantity of this virtue in keeping with his high moral character and deep faith. It appears that the whole affair was the product of an attempt to damage Al-Azhar and to drive a wedge between it and the Ministry of Religious Endowments, most likely because both of these religious institutions have stood solidly behind the state since the declaration of the roadmap in July 2013.
