Minister of Wakfs (religious endowment) Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq said: "I have no problem with the State Security Investigation or any other official body interfering in the appointment of Imams." Preachers do not take instructions from any official body to talk about certain issues, Zaqzouq said during the opening of Al-Qadi mosque in Benha, Qalyubia governorate in the presence of Qalyubia Governor Adli Hussein. We should make sure that the Imams are well-behaved and reputable before appointing them. It is always said that the security bodies interfere. But which security bodies? The Egyptian ones, which preserve the country's stability and let people feel calm, or Israel's?
The Ministry of Wakfs has appointed 3,000 Imams and preachers immediately after announcing the result of Al-Azhar University. The Ministry of Wakfs is the only Egyptian body that appoints people under permanent contracts, as the Ministry of Education itself signs casual contracts with teachers! I hope preachers' pay-scale would be approved by the Parliament in its coming session. The ministry would not change its plans in the month of Ramadan due to bird flu or swine flu. The forum of Islamic Thought would be held on schedule and prayers would be performed in the same mosques, unless people called for increasing the number of mosques, Minister Zaqzouq said. For the first time this year, the ministry increased the number of preachers in the pilgrimage mission from 30 to 70. Preachers will take part in foreign missions in Ramadan in spite of the spread of swine flu and bird flu in many world countries.
