Egypt's mufti comes under heavy fire after a surprise visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque defied a decades-long national travel boycott to Jerusalem while the city remains under Israeli occupation. Gihan Shahine monitors the furious debate A controversial visit by Egypt's Mufti Ali Gomaa to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque erupted in a week-long tsunami of public uproar in both Egypt and the Palestinian occupied territories for having broken a long-standing national boycott of lands occupied by Israel. On Sunday, a number of parliamentary members and Islamic figures flocked in front of Dar Al-Iftaa in protest at the visit and called for the dismissal of the mufti. "Gomaa lost his credibility," shouted MP Mahmoud El-Saqqa, also a member of the Wafd Party, during the protest. "The mufti should apologise," agreed MP Sayed Askar. "The visit is haram [a sin]," Islamic preacher Safwat Hegazi insisted as he joined the protest. In 1979 Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel but there has since been a public, national and clerical -- both Coptic and Muslim -- consensus that no one should visit the Palestinian territories so long as they remain under Israeli occupation. No former mufti had visited Jerusalem since the signing of the peace treaty and there had been many religious edicts by Al-Azhar and its affiliated Islamic Research Academy (IRA) prohibiting those visits on the grounds that they are harmful to the Palestinian cause. In that context Gomaa's first-time visit to Jerusalem was blasted across the political spectrum as an act of normalising relations with Israel. Critics described the mufti as a "holdover" from the former regime and insisted that he should resign or at least apologise for having provoked public sentiment by violating a national boycott. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which won a majority of seats in this year's parliamentary elections, was the first to condemn the visit on its website as "catastrophic" and "an act that undermines the aspirations of the Palestinian people". The FJP insisted that the brothers "categorically reject the visit" whatever the reasons are. The FJP statement made clear that it was unacceptable that the visit takes place "after the revolution that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak last year, whose regime enjoyed strong relations with the leaders of Israel [but] failed to impose normalisation on the Egyptian people." "It is a total disaster and a blow to the national fight against normalisation with Israel," insisted Osama Yassin, assistant secretary-general of the FJP, adding that the mufti should be questioned about the visit. "The visit divided the nation into two," Essam Sultan, vice president of the moderate Islamist Wasat Party, told a talk show. "This is not the kind of help Palestinians are seeking." A despondent Abdel-Akher Hamad, leader of the more radical Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, blasted the mufti as a holdover of the former regime who should not stay in his post when a new president is elected in June. Hamad attacked the visit which, he said, "took advantage of Egypt's turbulent political scene to defy a national position." Islamists were not alone in condemning Gomaa's sudden decision to visit Jerusalem. Figures from across the political spectrum were up in arms. "The mufti has turned from a government mouthpiece to the sheikh of Zionists," barked an agitated Wael El-Ibrashi in his Al-Haqiqa talk show on the Dream II satellite channel. "The visit was a public shock," agreed Abdel-Ghaffar Shokr of the Public Alliance political party, explaining that the mufti, being a revered figure, should not have violated a national consensus on boycotting all ties with Israel. "He owes his people an apology," Shokr insisted. Al-Azhar, for its part, made it clear through an IRA meeting headed by Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb that the visit does not represent the Sunni world's most prestigious seat of learning, and affirming that the institution upholds a long-standing position against all kinds of normalisation with Israel. Students in Al-Azhar also flocked in front of the university campus in protest at the visit which they said had undermined the reputation of the prestigious university, and called for the mufti's sacking. Gomaa, however, rejected claims that his visit was an act of normalisation with Israel which he said he had always vehemently opposed in his writings. He further told a press conference upon his return from Jerusalem that his visit was an unofficial "personal" trip aimed at showing solidarity with the Palestinian people, insisting that the trip was not conducted in his capacity as the mufti. Gomaa visited Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem and led two prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque on 18 April, along with Jordan's Prince Ghazi bin Mohamed, King Abdullah II's cousin and adviser on religious affairs. The visit, according to the mufti's spokesman Ibrahim Negm, was part of a trip to inaugurate the Imam Ghazali chair of Islamic studies under the auspices of the Jordanian Al-Bayt Foundation. Gomaa said all preparations for the visit were made under the auspices of the Jordanian authorities who supervise Jerusalem's holy sites. He said he entered Jerusalem via Jordan and that the trip did not involve any Israeli visa or entrance stamps. Gomaa further claimed that the visit was not conducted under Israeli security and that he did not see any such Israeli member during his stay. In perhaps a failed attempt to defuse public anger, Gomaa said that he could not resist the invitation to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque especially since it did not require dealing with the Israeli authorities. Gomaa, who looked clearly anxious as he treaded for the first time in Al-Aqsa Mosque and was not dressed in the formal attire of Al-Azhar sheikhs, defused criticism of what some called treason, insisting that any person visiting Jerusalem "naturally feels a reawakening of the importance of the [Palestinian] issue in his heart." Gomaa told the daily Al-Ahram that his visit was aimed at supporting the people of Jerusalem and learning about "the great suffering they are going through." Gomaa added that Palestinians living in Jerusalem said that such visits provide them with psychological support when Arab visitors see first-hand their plight. However, Ezzat Al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, criticised the visit on his Twitter account, considering it an act of normalisation "with the enemy". Critics on the Egyptian and Palestinian sides insisted that Gomaa's decision to visit Jerusalem cannot be considered a personal act so long as he remains in his post as Egypt's mufti. "The grand mufti is the head of the establishment that declares fatwas [religious edicts], and so his visit cannot be seen as personal," FJP's Yassin scoffed. In the meantime, critics expressed doubt that the mufti's visit was conducted without any Israeli supervision or consent. Unofficial Israeli press reports claimed that Gomaa's "secret" visit was made under heavy Israeli security and as such cannot be seen as an apolitical trip. "This is blasphemy," retorted Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, imam of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in a telephone interview to Al-Haqiqa talk show. Sabri explained that the mufti entered Al-Aqsa Mosque from the western gate which is fully under Israeli control and that many Palestinian figures, including himself, are banned from entering the mosque. "How is it that those who ban people, including figures from the Palestinian Authority, from visiting the mosque would not be the same ones in charge of allowing visitors?" asked Sabri who insisted that the Israeli authorities would not allow anyone to visit Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque unless it knows that the visit would be in its interests. Many critics argue that the very fact that the mufti's trip was facilitated that way would immediately indicate that there were some hidden agenda behind the visit. Many would agree with speculation by Palestinian writer Abdel-Qader Yassin that Israel perhaps allowed Gomaa to enter Jerusalem without a visa, when it prevents Palestinians themselves from entering Jerusalem and praying in Al-Aqsa Mosque, because "it is to Israel's advantage when an emulated religious figure like the mufti normalise relations with it." Marwan Abu Rayes, chair of the Muslim Union's Palestinian branch, similarly argued that Gomaa's visit arrangements were added proof that the imam enjoys the full protection of the Israeli occupying forces and the Palestinian Authority. "The mufti was trapped in an organised plan to break the Egyptian and Arab psychological barrier of normalisation and accept the occupation as a fact of life," Abu Rayes told Dream TV. "I wish the mufti had looked below the western gate and see how Israel had dug 37 tunnels underneath in attempts to demolish the mosque." In fact, Gomaa's visit cannot be seen in separation of a tangle of events that may explain much of the ambiguity shrouding his decision to visit Jerusalem. Gomaa's trip came on the heels of a visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque by popular Yemeni Islamic preacher Sheikh Al-Habib Bin Ali Al-Gefri; several visits to the occupied territories by key Jordanian officials; and an unprecedented flock of hundreds of Coptic pilgrims to Christian landmarks in Jerusalem to celebrate Easter. The Coptic Easter pilgrimage came in the wake of the death of Pope Shenouda III, who banned visits to Jerusalem's holy sites in protest at the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. The Orthodox Church insists it still upholds the ban. According to the Times of Israel, the Jordanian Ministry of Religious Endowment said the visit came in response to "calls from Palestinian officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, for Muslims to visit the mosque as a way to establish a Palestinian and Arab presence in the disputed city." The newspaper said that the mufti's visit received the blessings of the director of the Palestinian Islamic clerical body in charge of administering Al-Aqsa Mosque, Azzam Khatib, who said that such visits "let the world know that it is an Islamic, Arab site." According to Al-Ibrashi's Al-Haqiqa talk show, similar invitations were forwarded to a number of key Egyptian figures, including famous football star Mohamed Abu Treika, in perhaps a systematic plan to encourage others to follow suit. Abu Rayes, however, countered that the Palestinian Authority should not speak in the name of Palestinians, many of whom believe that such an illegitimate authority, as they call it, does not serve the Palestinian issue but rather compromises the rights of Palestinians. Neither does Al-Khatib represent the opinion of the Palestinians who similarly regard him as a civil servant in the Palestinian Authority, according to Abu Rayes. Many analysts speculate that by forwarding invitations to visit Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority wants to deliver a message: "that Jerusalem is now a safe place where worshippers, both Muslims and Christians, can perform their rituals peacefully and as such it would be just fine if it remains under Israeli occupation," Abu Rayes said. Prominent writer and political analyst Salama Ahmed Salama concurred. He told Al-Ahram Weekly that he also suspected that Jordanian authorities facilitated travel arrangements for a number of famous figures as perhaps a way to defuse criticism of a number of high-ranking Jordanian officials who have recently made recurrent visits to the occupied territories, by telling the world that a revered personality like the mufti also made similar visits. It remains questionable whether Gomaa and perhaps Sheikh El-Gefri could see there were any hidden agendas behind their organised visits. But there is no doubting that Gomaa's miscalculated decision to visit Jerusalem was at least ill-advised and badly timed. Salama believes that the mufti "was dragged into the visit and was probably unaware of the political repercussions of his decision to accept the invitation to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque." That said, however, Salama is among those condoning public calls for the dismissal of Gomaa on the grounds that such punitive action would at least dissuade those thinking of following in his footsteps. "It [the dismissal] would tell people that such visits do not actually serve Islam or Muslims," Salama explained. But that scenario remains unlikely since the mufti and the grand imam of Al-Azhar are appointed by virtue of a presidential decree and remain in their job for life. Under the current Al-Azhar law, no one has the right to sack the mufti except the president, or currently the ruling military council, and it remains questionable whether the mufti did not consult the council before he decided to travel to Jerusalem. Salama agreed with some analysts that the authorities in Jordan, which have full diplomatic relations with Israel and have played the role of mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, organised the trip as perhaps a trial balloon testing the position of Islamists, and perhaps the military council, regarding Egypt's peace treaty with Israel. It is no wonder then that the Israeli press focussed on the angry reaction of Islamists to the mufti's visit to Jerusalem, giving perhaps little attention to the fact that the visit sparked the wrath of the public across the political spectrum. Since the 25 January Revolution, the Israeli press has been having a field day reporting on Israeli concerns regarding its relations with its neighbouring country Egypt after the ouster of Mubarak who was largely seen as one of Israel's closest allies in the region. The rise of Islamists to power has, no doubt, constituted an added source of worry for Israeli policymakers as perhaps a threat to the Israeli peace treaty. The unprecedented attack by Egyptian protesters on the Israeli Embassy last year in protest against the killing of Egyptian soldiers at the hands of Israeli border forces in Sinai were also telling signs that Egyptians are not ready to normalise ties with Israel so long as it occupies Palestinian territories. "The mufti should have been more politically-oriented than to be trapped into such a visit, knowing it would do more harm than good to Islam and Muslims," Salama said. The timing of Gomaa's visit to Jerusalem was also provocative. The visit came following the Palestinian commemoration of Palestinian Prisoner Day, and in memory of the Israeli Bahr Al-Baqar massacre of Palestinian children in 1970. The visit also came only a few days after Israeli forces declared that they would build three new settlements in the West Bank. "Would Gomaa's visit stop the building of those settlements? Is it likely that similar visits would help prevent turning Jerusalem into a Jewish state or curb the daily Israeli assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque?" Sabri asked in sarcasm. "This is the kind of support Palestinians need; otherwise those who visit will only condone the Israeli occupation." (see p.15)
