Regulating religious authority for political gains: al-Sisi’s manipulation of al-Azhar in Egypt

Abstract

The shedding of blood is a serious matter in Islamic law; disregard for human life negates the very essence of just rule. By standing by General al-Sisi as he suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood, the popular legitimacy of al-Azhar-the oldest seat of Islamic learning-was called into question. This article shows how the al-Sisi government skilfully deployed the two other state-controlled religious establishments, the Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) and Dar-ul-Ifta, to boost al-Azhar's popular legitimacy in this context. Existing scholarship highlights the importance of competition within the Egyptian religious sphere to explain how the Egyptian state co-opts the al-Azhari official establishment. This article instead shows how the state, equally skilfully, uses state institutions to boost al-Azhar's popular legitimacy-albeit to ensure that it remains useful for the purposes of political legitimisation. Political authority and religious authority in Egypt thus remain closely entangled.

Islam in education: how marginalizing Islamic curriculum from Egypt's national education has contributed to religious extremism

“…Extremists in Egypt, who have been marginalized by the current regime, have turned to online education to reach and cultivate the youth and adults with their extreme thoughts that go against the moderate methodology of al-Azhar. This group is most likely to be interested in learning more about their religion, as they have been deprived of obtaining enough religious knowledge through the public national education system (Bano & Benadi, 2018).…”

“…According to Bano & Benadi (2018), the establishment of Dar al-Ifta in the 19th century was a response to modernity, in order for the state to be able to compete effectively in the modern world. Despite having different structures and following different methodologies for issuing fatwas, Dar al-Ifta and al-Azhar have worked together in recent times (Bano & Benadi, 2018).…”

“…According to Bano & Benadi (2018), the establishment of Dar al-Ifta in the 19th century was a response to modernity, in order for the state to be able to compete effectively in the modern world. Despite having different structures and following different methodologies for issuing fatwas, Dar al-Ifta and al-Azhar have worked together in recent times (Bano & Benadi, 2018). Petersen (1997) notes that Dar al-Ifta has been recording the questions and answers of fatwas since its establishment, with most of them pertaining to personal matters and Islamic rituals.…”

“…Al-Azhar and Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah are respected Islamic institutions that provide religious guidance and adhere to the same methodology (Bano & Benadi, 2018). In Egypt, the Fatwa Council of al-Azhar and Dar al-Ifta are trusted sources for Islamic fatwa, and they play a crucial role in promoting Islamic moderation and resolving religious issues faced by Egyptian Muslims (Mas'al, 2021).…”

Muslim Orders in Russia: Trade Networks andHijamaHealing

“…The report (available in Russian, at http://government.ru/info/20224/) is titled On the Concept of State Migration Policy of the Russian Federation for the Period until 2025. 2 There is a lacuna of literature on authority and power, religious authority, and the role of authority in Islam (Lambek 1990;Long 2017;Bano and Benadi 2018). However, the focus of this article is not to analyze the formation, negotiation, contestation, and fragmentation of religious authority but rather to look into the mechanisms of work performed by individual Muslims that contribute to the institutionalization of Muslim orders or spaces structured by Muslim networks.…”