What lies behind the increasingly bitter dispute between Egypt's mufti and the Salafi Sheikh Abu Ishaq El-Huweini? Amani Maged writes History is full of Salafist antagonism towards Sufis. However, the current set-to has exceeded all bounds. It involves two religious leaders who command a large number of followers. On one side is Sheikh Abu Ishaq El-Huweini, the self- proclaimed "champion of Sunna". On the other is Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa. The crisis has reached the point where Al-Azhar Rector Ahmed El-Tayeb met with the mufti and with well- known Islamist preacher Sheikh Mohamed Hassan in an attempt to promote a reconciliation. At the same time Sheikh Mazhar Shahin, preacher at the Omar Makram Mosque, urged presidential candidates to form a committee to mediate the dispute. Whatever peace- making efforts do ensue, though, have now been deferred until after the Eid Al-Adha holiday and the pilgrimage season. The dispute began when the mufti described the niqab -- the full face-covering for women promoted by Salafis -- as a bidaa, or innovation, as opposed to an original article of doctrine. In addition, in an article in The Washington Post he denounced attacks against religious shrines in various parts of Egypt, which Salafis are thought to have encouraged, as violating Islam, reason and humanitarian principles. In response, the Salafis launched a campaign of vilification against Gomaa. As he was delivering the Friday sermon in Al-Rahma Mosque in Port Said, a city where the Salafis have many followers, a bearded youth interrupted the mufti calling him a remnant of the old regime. "The Prophet warned us of sedition and those who wreak sedition, who deceive in the name of God, and who speak out of ignorance," Gomaa replied. The mufti's response further enraged the Salafis. Sheikh Khaled Abdallah dedicated part of his People programme on a Salafist satellite channel to "exposing the truth" about Gomaa. Sheikh El-Huweini launched another broadside on yet another Salafi programme. "The mufti is like fatta soup," he said. "His knowledge is scattered, like bits of bread tossed into a broth. He is intellectually stillborn. Even on the principles of Islamic jurisprudence, we are not alone in questioning his ability. Go ask his colleagues in the university and they will tell you the extent of his knowledge, faith and morals." Not surprisingly, Gomaa took this as malicious defamation of character and filed a libel suit against El-Huweini. The day the trial opened in the Delta city of Kafr Al-Sheikh Salafis from around the country converged on the Court of Misdemeanours in a demonstration of support for Al-Huweini, the "Lion of the Sunna" as they dubbed him. Demonstrators waved placards proclaiming "You are the whole, even when alone", "We will give our lives for you, Abu Ishaq" and "Leave, you son of a Gomaa!". A platform was erected from which a procession of Salafi sheikhs took turns to speak against the mufti. The demonstrators threatened to stage a sit-in in front of the SCAF headquarters in Cairo until Gomaa stood down, and also said they would collect a million signatures for a petition demanding his dismissal. Meanwhile, women wearing the niqab rallied in front of Al-Azhar Rectory to call for the dismissal of both the mufti and the rector of Al-Azhar. The protesters also demanded the retraction of a fatwa supporting the prohibition of the niqab in examination halls. In the fatwa the niqab is described as a "custom". The protesters want this changed to state that the niqab is a form of worship. The women brandished placards vowing never to remove their face coverings. "Are we in France or what?" asked one placard. Another demanded to know who else in history had banned the niqab but Nicolas Sarkozy and Kemal Ataturk, while a third asked when Al-Azhar would return to being a bastion of Islam. The conflict between Gomaa and El-Huweini goes far deeper than personalities or the issue of the niqab. It is, says Salah El-Adli, a professor of religion at Al-Azhar University, a methodological and ideological battle. Sheikh Gomaa represents the Ashari doctrine of Islamic theology, to which the majority of Al-Azhar scholars, as well as most Muslims in the Arab world, subscribe. The Ashari creed and the Maturidi creed, which prevail among Muslims in Asia, subscribe to and elaborate on the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. The Salafis, by contrast, adhere to a school of jurisprudence traced back to Ahmed ibn Hanbal through Ibn Taymiya and Mohamed ibn Abdel-Wahab, the founder of the Wahhabi movement in the Arabian peninsula. The Salafis do not regard the Ashari and Maturidi creeds as authentic schools of Sunni theology and jurisprudence. Abdel-Fattah El-Sheikh, a former rector of Al-Azhar, has criticised the Salafis for personalising the issues. "Ali Gomaa made the mistake of expressing pro-Sufi sympathies in his criticism of the Salafist Wahhabi approach. But Sheikh El-Huweini and a number of other Salafi leaders were wrong to attack the mufti and then defame and slander his character and position. It was also wrong of the Salafis to pre-empt the legal process by means of demonstrations and protests demanding the mufti's dismissal. Ammar Ali Hassan, an expert on Islamist movements, agrees that the confrontation is in essence one between Wahhabi Salafism and the Ashari school, the dominant creed of Al-Azhar for centuries. Against Egypt's current political backdrop, the clash is disturbing. Already there are signs of growing polarisation between the Salafis, who are rallying behind El-Huweini, and other Muslims who, fearful of Salafist infiltration, are gathering behind the Mufti Ali Gomaa.
