CAIRO - Hundreds of clerics from Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world's most famous centre of learning, congregated on the centuries-old Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo to demand more independence for their institution and a touch of democracy in it. Wearing their traditional white turbans and red hats, the clerics, who came from different parts in Egypt, chanted slogans against State control of Al-Azhar and called on the Government to give them financial independence. “There can be no intellectual independence for this institution without financial independence,” said Salah Sultan, one of the clerics of Al-Azhar, addressing hundreds of like-minded clergymen who sat on the ground to listen to him. “Everybody needs to know that an independent Al-Azhar means a strong Egypt,” he added. His listeners, most of them mosque preachers and university professors, enthusiastically nodded in agreement. But as they raised their voices in protest against what they called the “continuity of the policies of the former regime that sought to weaken Al-Azhar”, these clerics were proving that Egypt's revolution that forced Mubarak to stand down as president of this country on February 11 has already left its centre in Al Tahrir Square and started to seep into most of the nation's institutions. A few days after Mubarak stepped down, this country's companies, factories and centres of public service started their own revolutions against the symbols of the former regime and also its policies. Workers in the nation's textile factories, aluminum factories, insurance companies and ministries have staged their own protests against administrations and boards appointed by Mubarak and his once-feared State Security service. The same happened inside State-owned newspapers where the editors needed endorsement from the Government and the State Security service to get their positions. Anger used to boil inside Al-Azhar, which promotes moderate interpretations of Islam and the religious texts, even before the January 25 revolution started. The institution's clerics say this important centre of religious learning used to be marginalised for decades by the successive governments, the thing that weakened Egypt internally and also externally in its Islamic domain. After the January 25 revolution, however, Al-Azhar clerics became more vocal in expressing their demands. A month ago, the Armed Forces had to intervene to end protests by the staff of the office of the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar. The staff made financial demands, but few organisational demands were expressed, including the need to choose the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar through internal elections, not by the State. “A committee of the top leaders of Al-Azhar must choose the Grand Sheikh,” said Sheikh Gamal Qotb, a leading cleric from Al-Azhar. “But the members of this committee must be chosen for it by direct vote.” High in the list of demands by the clerics of Al-Azhar is the need to change the curricula in schools and colleges affiliated to this institution and make the Ministry of Religious Endowments, which owns huge financial resources and assets, part of Al-Azhar itself, not just an agency managed and manipulated by the State. Some people say deep under the shows of anger by the clerics of Al-Azhar are the pains of theological education in this country. The clerics say the Government spends 3,000 pounds (almost $500) on the education of each student in State-run schools a year , but pays 40 pounds only ($6.7) to educate each student in the schools of Al-Azhar. Some mosque preachers also complain about the low salaries they receive. One of the preachers had earlier told this newspaper that a preacher took peanuts for salaries each month, but had to appear well-dressed, buy books of theology and cater for the needs of his family. “So tell me how can a preacher do all this with this very small amount of money?” the preacher asked. “How can preachers be role models for other people, while they find it almost impossible to put food on the table for their children at home?”
