[A-List] Yasmin Amin on Mubarak and Al Azhar

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://desicritics.org/2007/03/05/034635.php>
Abdel Karim - How Extremism Silences Moderate Voices
March 05, 2007
tbs

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Beginning with Law Number 102 of 1985, Mubarak's various governments
gave Al Azhar's Islamic Research Council (IRC) the power to advise on
the banning or censoring of any book it judged as heretical. Minister
of Culture Farouk Hosni later gave the increasingly potent body a
boost when he was quoted as saying, "Al Azhar is the supreme
authority; when it states an opinion, we must all fall silent."
Paradoxically Minister Farouk Hosni said recently that "the headscarf
is a symbol of backwardness", which landed him into a lot of trouble
in Egypt, yet he was not accused by Al Azhar of anything at all.

The IRC at Al-Azhar University had the legal authority to censor, but
not to confiscate any books. Unfortunately the Center was given the
authority to confiscate books and audio and videotapes that they
believe violate Islamic teachings by Minister of Justice Faruq Seif
al-Nasr. The minister's order led to the confiscation of hundreds of
publications from bookstores.

Not only were books affected by that, but also the range of academic
research was rigidly restricted. The case against Nasr Abu Zeid began
as a response to his interpretation of the Qur'an and resulted in an
implied decision in all Arab language and philosophy departments to
ban registrations of any theses involving an interpretation of the
Qur'an that might lead to the same problem. Any academic researcher
thinking of a thesis on a religious subject no longer has complete
freedom to decide the subject. In 2006, Al Azhar not only allowed, but
also granted, a doctorate to an obvious fanatic. The thesis listed who
all he thought are apostates, with one of Egypt's first female
journalists Rosa Al-Youssef in the lead.

What I find very puzzling is that the government clamps down so very
hard on Islamists and Muslim Brothers, yet allows their constant
meddling in intellectual affairs. This is very strange, because it is
exactly this intellectual backwardness disguised as religious zeal,
which is the core challenge to Mubarak's ostensibly secular state. In
the Human Rights Watch report of 2005 it was noted: "The Egyptian
government must create an environment where academic freedom is
respected, i.e., restore autonomy to the universities and cease
violating the rights of individual members of the community. Such
steps would make it harder for those who challenge academic freedom to
achieve their goals. The state should also actively oppose intolerant
individuals or groups who carry out attacks against academic freedom.
For example, it should reject calls to censor books and allow students
to choose their own thesis topics. Rather than combating Islamists'
attempts to limit academic freedom, Egypt has allowed them to deprive
others of their rights."

In an explosive interview in 2004, Nabil Abdel Fattah, a political
analyst with Al Ahram Political and Strategic Studies Center wrote
about how Politicians have used religion to gain legitimacy, how
extremists have used it to condone murder and how religious
institutions have been more than happy to play the power game to win
some control of their own. Welcoming the reader to twenty five years
of religious politics in Egypt, he said: "Al-Azhar has been censoring
books and, worse, we've become accustomed to reading about one
Islamist lawyer or another calling for movies to be banned because the
posters were 'suggestive'. Instead, the state over-used religion in
its political war and it over-used Al-Azhar. We can't ignore the fact
that there are extremists inside Al-Azhar itself, which put additional
burdens on people and society." This was published in Egypt Today, a
famous Magazine in Cairo. The words are not very much different from
Kareem Amer's conclusion now are they?

Islam is intrinsically a moderate religion. Yet, today the biggest
problem it faces is the extremism of its advocates. Al Azhar, as one
of the oldest universities and Islamic institutions should be the
first to ensure that Muslims stay on the middle path. Islam neither
teaches extremism nor rejection, neither arrogance nor ignorance. In
fact, it condemns them all. My parents and teachers never taught me
this. I do not recognise many aspects of this violent intolerant
behaviour. What then does it teach? The Islam I learned teaches people
to be kind and forgiving, to be open hearted and modest in behaviour.
It teaches a beautiful middle way, a critical balance between two
unhealthy and unworthy extremes. "And it is thus that We appointed you
to be the community of the middle way, so that you might be witnesses
before all mankind and the Messenger might be a witness before you."
(Qur'an 2:143)

Yasmin Amin is a bibliophile living in Cairo, with interests relating
to religious studies and Middle Eastern history
--
Yoshie