CAIRO - The January revolution broke the silence of the Egyptian majority and made them take a leading role in changing the nation's political life. It also removed the restrictions the former regime had imposed on different religious groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists, who have now assumed a high profile in society and are freely expressing their opinions. The sudden emergence of these Islamic groups has raised concern among Egyptians, especially when some of their followcrs have decided to take the law into their hands. The latest crisis is an attempt by a religious association affiliated to the Salafists to lay their hands on the landmark Al-Nour (the light) Mosque, the largest mosque in Abbasiya in eastern Cairo. The public has been given the impression that the extremist Islamists are set on dominating the mosque' in order to spread their ideology in society. However, this story has a different dimension with the mosque having been a subject of conflict between the private Hedaya Association and the Ministry of Religious Endowments, each staking claim to the mosque and its affiliated services and utilities. The case went through a lengthy period of court hearings, which finally ended with the Ministry of Religious Endowments being given the right to run the mosque while its service utilities were given to the private association. Founder of the Hedaya Association is Sheikh Hafez Salama, who is a famous national resistance leader, who spearheaded the Egyptian resistance against the Israeli occupation of the port of Suez during Egypt's wars with the Zionist state. He gained both national and Arab respect. Late president Anwar Sadat ordered the allocation of a spacious area of land in Abbasiya in response to Salama's request to build a mosque there. Late King Faisel ben Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia donated a substantial sum of money to help Salama build his mosque. However, on the death of Sadat, the State authrotities appropriated the mosque, while it was still under construction, together with the deposited funds to complete its building. The mosque was then run by the Ministry of Religious Endowments. The ministry, according to law No. 157 of 1960, acquired the right to run mosques even if they had been run by private associations or individuals, apparently with the aim of preventing the spread of militant thoughts and the propagation of ideas violating the State's strategy. Opinions have differed over the ongoing dispute between Sheikh Salama and the Ministry of Religious Endowments on Al-Nour Mosque, especially with the re-emergence of the Salafists in post-Mubarak revolution. Sheikh Mohamed Hassan, a key salafist cleric, has criticised the attempt of Sheikh Salama and his followers to force a new preacher onto the mosque in place of Sheikh Ahmed Turk, who was appointed by the Ministry of Religious Endowments. The disagreement has escalated to conflicts between the two sides during the Friday congregational prayers for the past two weeks. “I have never preached in a mosque of the Ministry of Religious Endowments without having permission from the officials,” Sheikh Hassan told Al-Ahrar opposition newspaper. Hassan, who enjoys wide popularity in Egypt and in Arab countries, has urged Egyptian Muslims to project a good image of Islam and behave well with one another. Meanwhile, Sheikh Abdel-Fattah Ashour, a professor of Al-Azhar University, has criticised the local media for allegedly reporting the dispute as if it were an attempt made by a certain Islamic group to take over one of the State-run mosques. “Mosques are places for worshipping Allah and they need certain authorities to run them. These authorities could be the Ministry of Religious Endowments or the private associations,” stated Abdel-Fatah, who referred to the presence of many other mosques built by private associations and which offer important charity services to the needy members of society. The cleric and many others have called for going to court again to decide who should administer Al-Nour Mosque. The crisis might well open the file on the Ministry of Religious Endowments' control of mosque pulpits, say observers.
