SEVERAL scholars from Al-Azhar University are up in arms against the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayyeb for welcoming Shi'ite students from Iran to come to Egypt to pursue studies at the university, a must-go place for students of Islamic jurisprudence and sciences. The scholars, who belong to what is called the “Al-Azhar Ulema Front”, warned against what they described as a “Shi'ite infiltration of Sunni Islam's seat of learning”, and called on el-Tayyeb who has taken over only a few weeks ago, to reconsider his attitude. “Shi'ites doubt the authenticity of the Holy Qur'an,” said Mohamed Berri, a member of the front. “They continue to produce books that attack Sunni Islam and its icons,” he told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. El-Tayyeb may have made his announcement of welcome on Wednesday as a good gesture towards Shi'ites, who form the second biggest denomination in Islam. Shi ites said their children were strongly welcomed at Al-Azhar University until the late 1970s before relations between Egypt and Iran worsened, particularly in the aftermath of the assassination of the late Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat in 1981. Similar to other schools of thought in Islam, Shi'ite Islam is based on the teachings of the Qur'an and the message of Islam's Prophet Mohamed. Shi'ites, however, hold that the Prophet's family and certain individuals among his descendants, who are known as Imams, have a special spiritual and political authority over the community. They believe that Ali, Mohamed's cousin and his son-in-law, was the first of these Imams and was the rightful successor to Mohamed and thus reject the legitimacy of the first three Rashidun (righteous) Caliphs. This is always on the minds of Berri and his colleagues at the front. They say when they come here, Shi'ite students will try to spread the ideas of their belief among Sunni students at Al-Azhar. But this is a charge many in the Shi'ite community in Egypt reject. Shi'ites say the protectionist measures some of the scholars of Al-Azhar impose defame Al-Azhar itself. “You can't continue to impose these measures forever,” said Mahmoud Gabir, a leading Shi'ite thinker. “If you protect something that strongly, you indirectly say this thing is weak and incapable of competition, which isn't the true case of Sunni Islam,” he told this newspaper in an interview. Gabir and fellow believers tend to scoff at claims that Shi'ites have an interest in spreading their faith in Egypt, a country where Sunni Muslims have manipulated the religious scene for centuries. They say conversion as a concept is not part of mainstream Shi'ite thought. But this does little to allay the fears of Berri and like-minded Sunnis who fear from the presence of Shi'ites in this country's religious institutions. He says the administration of Al-Azhar University can allow Shi'ite students from Iran to come here as long as these students want to study the “true Islam”. “If this is the case, they're welcome,” Berri said. “Other than that, they shouldn't be allowed here,” he added. Absent from the minds of most of those who locked horns over el-Tayyeb'sannouncement was what this announcement could reflect on the personality and the thought of the man. Some people say as a Sufi, el-Tayyeb has a big degree of tolerance in his behaviour and this says much about the man's future course in Al-Azhar.
