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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Books Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Dissolved board wins legal battle
By Mona El-NahhasThe Administrative Court on Sunday annulled a decree issued last June by Cairo Governor Abdel-Rahim Shehata dissolving the board of directors of the Front of Al-Azhar Ulama. The court said that the governor's decree had no legal basis because no financial or administrative irregularities had been committed by the Front's board. Under the court ruling, decisions taken by a five-member temporary board, appointed by Shehata to replace the original board, are considered null and void.
Members of the Al-Azhar Front are satisfied with their victory. Sheikh El-Agami El-Damanhouri, head of the Front, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the board of directors intends to hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss ways of implementing the court order.
El-Damanhouri pointed out that members of the temporary board sold the apartment which had been used as the Front's offices. "But this does not matter to us. We will hold our meeting even in the street," he said. "We have now become much stronger and nobody will be able to deny our existence."
Selim El-Awwa, El-Damanhouri's lawyer, praised the court's decision as "honourable", and said it should be enforced immediately even if Shehata decides to contest it before the Supreme Administrative Court.
In ordering the Front's dissolution, the governor's decree, issued on 28 June, said that the group had gone beyond the limits of its role as a social association and had started to adopt certain political positions. Shehata's decree was issued in response to a request by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi.
Tantawi had submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Social Affairs calling for the dissolution of the Front's 15-member board of directors. Without conducting an investigation, the ministry, with which the Front has been registered since 1946, approved Tantawi's request and sent a memorandum to the Cairo Governorate demanding that the Front's board be disbanded.
The Cairo governor, who is legally authorised to issue dissolution orders for social associations, appointed a five-member temporary board to take charge of the Front for one year until elections for a new board were to take place. Members of the dissolved board viewed the action as an attempt to silence those opposing Tantawi's "too liberal" religious rulings. Five members of the dissolved board filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court contesting the governor's decree.
The Front had in the past attacked the Imam's position on bank interest, which he tolerates. The group considers it to be usury, which goes against the tenets of Islam. Their most serious confrontation took place in November 1997 after Tantawi met with a visiting Israeli rabbi. The Front has also opposed a new law passed by the People's Assembly, at Tantawi's behest, to overhaul the educational system at Al-Azhar. The Front issued a statement condemning the law for "destroying Azharite education by cutting major parts of the curriculum".
Tantawi declined to comment on the court order, saying: "The decree dissolving the Front was not mine in the first place."
