The recommendations made by Al-Azhar “are negative and could be a trap for the modern state,” Hazim Hosny, a political science professor at Cairo University, told German news agency Deutsche Welle. “The civil state cannot be based on religious ethics but the modern state doesn't oppose religion,” he said. Hosny also said that he doesn't believe that the secular and liberal movements in Egypt encouraged Al-Azhar to issue its document. The Al-Azhar document did not use the term “civil state” and instead used the term “national state,” as the Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb believes that “civil state” contradicts Islam.
