Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Defying Al-Azhar

		29 August - 4 Sept. 2002 Issue No. 601 Home news	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Defying Al-Azhar
A critic of Al-Azhar's grand imam has received a one-year sentence for libel. Mona El-Nahhas reports

Yehia Ismail, former secretary-general of the dissolved Front of Al-Azhar ulama (scholars), was handed a one-year prison sentence on 19 August, for libeling the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi.
The case began two years ago, after an article by Ismail entitled "Khul': Made in America" appeared in Al-Shaab newspaper. The piece was highly critical of Sheikh Tantawi's approval of khul' (a legal process by which women are entitled to a divorce via a court ruling, on condition that they give up all their financial rights), and hinting that the new law had been dictated by the US.
The article was reflective of the long-running dispute between the grand imam of Al-Azhar and the Al-Azhar front of scholars, who had been spear-heading an anti-Tantawi campaign via criticism of what they saw as his liberal views concerning, amongst other things, the legality of bank interest and organ transplants. The severest criticism directed by the front against Tantawi came in 1997, after the grand imam hosted a rabbi at Al-Azhar Mosque.
The front was dissolved three years ago after Tantawi referred a number of its scholars to disciplinary councils for investigations based on different charges. And though an administrative court annulled the decree dissolving the front, Tantawi appealed to a higher court and the front was eventually frozen.
This month's sentencing of Ismail indicated just how "harsh" Tantawi could be against a fellow Azharite sheikh, said Rabie Wahba, executive director of the Centre for Human Rights Legal Aid (CHRLA). The centre expressed its "shock" at the sentence and decided to join Ismail's defence team.
Ismail's lawyer, Samir El-Bagouri, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the ruling will soon be contested before the Court of Cassation.
El-Bagouri pointed out that the ruling was handed down even though Ismail was abroad at the time. "We asked for the postponement of the verdict until the defendant comes back from Lebanon," he said, "as the presence of defendants is a must in cases heard before criminal courts. Yet, the court disregarded our demands and passed the ruling."
El-Bagouri noted that the Court of Cassation can now decide whether or not to carry out the sentence before its final ruling is handed down. If so, Ismail will be arrested as soon as he comes back to the country.
Tantawi, who is currently in Saudi Arabia performing the umra (lesser pilgrimage) was not available for comment.
"As the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Tantawi should have been more tolerant," the CHRLA's Wahba said.
According to the centre's statement, the ruling was based upon legal provisions that violate the international convention for civil and political rights, which Egypt approved in 1981. The centre said that it was imperative that penalties of imprisonment and fines in opinion cases be abolished. The group also called upon all human rights activists to support Ismail's case.
The case has seen several twists and turns since the article was published two years ago in the now-dissolved mouthpiece of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party. Tantawi had originally submitted his complaint against the article to Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed, who then referred Ismail to trial. In March 2001, a Cairo criminal court ruled in favour of Ismail, considering the published material mere criticism.
Not happy with the verdict, prosecutors contested it before the Court of Cassation, which annulled it in October 2001, and referred Ismail to another circuit of the Cairo criminal court.

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