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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Azhar censorship zealously defended
By Gamal Essam El-DinA throng of religious clerics and parliamentarians gathered at the People's Assembly's Religious Affairs Committee on Monday to debate the role of Al-Azhar in fighting extremist religious thinking and blasphemous ideas.
The meeting was spurred by the heated exchange of accusations and counter-accusations during the past three weeks between secularist intellectuals and Al-Azhar, caused by the re-publishing of an allegedly blasphemous novel A Banquet for Seaweed by Syrian author Haydar Haydar.
Ahmed Omar Hashem, president of Al-Azhar University and chairman of parliament's Religious Affairs Committee, stunned intellectuals by taking the Ministry of Culture to task and urging that copies of the novel be burned. The intellectuals, in turn, accused Al-Azhar of devoting its attention to the confiscation of books, instead of fighting religious extremism.
Last month, Hashem said, Al-Azhar faced "a hurricane of criticism from those who want to undermine Islam and aim to destroy religious values and ethics." The religious institution, security forces and the information media have been able to protect Egypt from extremist religious thought, he said. "Egypt is a regional power that has for long been targeted by terrorists and religious extremists. It is Al-Azhar that protected Egypt from falling prey to these waves of terrorist and extremist thought," Hashem said. "And yet, it is regrettable to see some attacking Al-Azhar and accusing it of ignoring its principal duty of fighting extremist thought. They attack Al-Azhar because they want absolute freedom, with no regard for values and religious morality."
A number of Azharite clerics reviewed the institution's role in opposing religious extremism and disseminating moderate Islam.
El-Sayed Wafa, chairman of Al-Azhar's Religious Institutes Sector, said that Al-Azhar has taken great strides in recent years to upgrade Islamic education. "We are intent, from the preparatory school stage, on teaching students that Islam is a religion of moderate values. Great efforts have been made to ensure that all religious books taught in Azharite preparatory and secondary schools and institutes are free from extremist ideas and that they tell students that Islam is the religion of scientific learning, moderation and rationalism," said Wafa.
Abdel-Aziz Ibrahim, secretary-general of the Islamic Research Academy, argued that Al-Azhar is empowered by law to impose censorship on literary, as well as religious books. "Last year, we censored as many as 250 religious and literary works that discuss Islam in one way or another," Ibrahim said. He added that 16,000 cassette tapes on Islamic subjects have also been censored, while "50,000 others were exported to neighbouring Islamic countries to send the message that Islam is a sublime and moderate religion."
On the sidelines of the meeting, Hashem was interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly in connection with a statement he issued in the committee's name, urging that A Banquet for Seaweed be burned.
Hashem's critics say this move, made without consulting with People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour and committee members, was aimed at serving a personal interest.
Hashem responded that it was no secret that committee members had urged him to issue the statement to quickly contain a confrontation between Al-Azhar students and security forces. "When I read the novel and it became clear to me that it directs a big insult to Islam, I wrote the statement myself and gave a copy to Speaker Sorour. He promised that he would read it out in the assembly's plenary session on the same day. But he later changed his position. This is why the committee members and myself decided to exercise our natural right to debate the novel and subsequent events and make the statement available to parliamentary reporters."
He added that although "I was personally showered by torrents of insults and defamation, I insisted that the statement be issued. All now agree that it is this statement that put an end to the student demonstrations and spared the nation a lot of complications. It was by no means aimed at serving a personal interest."
Asked for the reason behind his alleged refusal to attend meetings of a committee formed by Culture Minister Farouk Hosni to issue a report on the novel, Hashem emphasised that he was not invited to be a member of Hosni's committee. "The committee included literary critics and it was not decreed that I become a member. Anyhow, the statements issued by the religious committee of the People's Assembly and Al-Azhar conveyed the right view on the novel. Both said that the re-publishing of such a poisonous novel is highly detrimental to the Egyptian intellect and represents a serious aggression against Islam," he said.
Questioned about the future relationship between Al-Azhar and the Ministry of Culture, Hashem insisted that "the Ministry of Culture must seek Al-Azhar's opinion on all books which deal with Islamic subjects in one way or another, be they novels or any other form of creative writing. Freedom of expression is welcome, but all men-of-letters should realise that this freedom is restricted by respect for God, His Prophet [Mohamed] and all religious values."
Hosni's committee of literary critics had concluded that the novel was not blasphemous and that quotations from the book published by Al-Shaab, mouthpiece of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party, had been taken out of context. "The book's theme was falsified and its great artistic value ignored. This novel does not defame religion and should not be judged from a non-literary perspective," the committee's report said.
