Unanswered questions

Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi's recent appearance at the American University in Cairo left a lot of questions unanswered, reports Reem Nafie

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Tantawi and Arnold addressing the AUC community

The American University in Cairo's (AUC) Ewart Hall was packed with students, faculty and staff, both Egyptian and foreign, waiting for the highly publicised event to begin. The timing seemed perfect, with Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al- Azhar -- the highest religious authority in Sunni Islam -- set to speak to the AUC community just a few days before the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

According to AUC President David Arnold, both AUC and Al-Azhar played important roles as bridges between east and west. "Our two institutions have never possessed or played more critical roles in today's world," he said. Arnold said Tantawi would answer questions "related to Islam", in light of recent international events that appeared to have Muslims as their focus.

The enthusiastic audience gave the important religious scholar a very warm welcome. Picking up on Arnold's comments, Tantawi began his talk with a message about unity. "People have different beliefs and goals," he said, "but these differences should not prevent us from interacting and cooperating with each other." All monotheistic religions carry the same message -- that there is only one God, he said. "If there are differences, then they exist only in the details, and not in the core beliefs." Interspersing his speech with verses from the Quran, Tantawi said that mankind would only advance by accepting our differences and learning from each other. He did not, however, elaborate, or provide examples of how this cooperation would occur, nor did he mention the difficulties of doing so in light of current events such as the recent Taba attacks.

In fact, because his speech took up most of the event's duration, only ten minutes remained for questions. AUC "talk shows" -- a student-run activity that takes place every week and features a public personality -- usually involve at least a half an hour's worth of questions from the audience.

Once the questions began, the controversial subject of Islam's stand on banking and interest soon came up. "Islam is not against interest," Tantawi said, reiterating the stance that had fuelled much debate amongst Islamic scholars. He said that he personally deposits his money in banks that use a fixed interest rate system since the bank is "investing my money, and at the end of the year I receive part of the bank's profits". However, if Muslims wish to deposit their money in investment schemes that use a fluctuating interest rate system, it was also acceptable "as long as the client agrees".

His views ended up triggering angry reactions from Saudi Arabian Islamic scholars, who a few days later told the Saudi Arabian media that, "the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar should know that interest rates are a form of riba (usury)."

One issue that much of the student body seemed interested in was Tantawi's stance on the higab, or veil. The Grand Imam had invoked much ire amongst the general public earlier in the year when he lent high-profile support to France's decision to ban the veil in state schools. No Muslim body or country, he argued at the time, was entitled to oppose that kind of decision because France is a non-Muslim country.

At AUC, Tantawi said the veil was "obligatory, obligatory, obligatory" for any Muslim woman. The face and hands, however, he said, should remain uncovered.

In response to a question from Al- Ahram Weekly regarding a Religious Endowment Ministry plan to unify the call to prayer, Tantawi said that the proposal was still "only an idea" that should not be judged before its implementation. The plan -- to unify the call to prayer emerging from Cairo's mosques -- had raised much controversy. "To achieve a unified azan in the whole of Cairo," Tantawi said, "a lot of technology, planning and engineering is needed, something that could take at least a year." If the end result is a unified, pleasant call to prayer, "that would be great", he said. If not, "then we can start judging".

At the end of the one-hour event, many of those leaving the hall seemed unsatisfied. AUC student Reham Hosny, for instance, told the Weekly that she was "really disappointed that Tantawi did not mention issues he knew people wanted him to speak about, like the Taba attacks, Egyptian-Israeli relations, and what's going on in Palestine."