The Sultan’s Preacher Goes to Jerusalem

By: Rana Mamdouh

Published Friday, April 20, 2012

Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa (C),
walks out of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock mosque during his visit
to the Al-Aqsa mosques compound,
Islam's third holiest site, on 18 April 2012. (Photo: AFP - STR)

Completely disregarding popular opinion opposed to normalization with Israel, Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa visited the al-Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem, stirring a storm of criticism.

Cairo – “Do not reconcile even if all the sheikhs stood against your sword...and men who are full of fractures...those who love the taste of gruel and riding slaves...whose turbans hang over their eyes...and their Arab swords forget the years of glory...do not reconcile.”

The words of Amal Donkol’s poem, harshly critical of sheikhs, were on the lips of the Egyptian public as they responded to Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa’s visit to Jerusalem under the patronage of Israeli occupation.

Some Egyptians are seeing the visit as a continuation of “the ruler’s sheikhs’” determination to minimize the influence of Al-Azhar, the centre for Arabic literature and Islamic learning, and of its religious scholars.

They compared the Mufti’s visit to the late Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi shaking hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres at a UN inter-religious conference in 2008.

Remarkably, the shameful handshake took place during the inhumane Israeli blockade on the people of Gaza. It triggered a violent debate in political and legislative circles in Egypt, with calls for the sheikh’s removal.

Tantawi had also received chief Israeli rabbi Lau in Al-Azhar in spite of the opposition of most scholars. He responded saying, “If my enemy comes to me, whether Israeli or non-Israeli, I will meet with him.”

the mufti’s visit and the al-Azhar sheikh’s handshake do not represent the policies of Dar al-Ifta, or Al-Azhar.

Senior researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Amr Hashem Rabih, explained that the mufti’s visit and the al-Azhar sheikh’s handshake do not represent the policies of Dar al-Ifta, the highest authoritative Islamic institute, or Al-Azhar. But the acts were not out of line with the policies of the Egyptian government on this issue.  

The visit also opposed the policies of the Orthodox church in Egypt under the leadership of the late Pope Shenouda III. According to Rabih, the church adopted a firm policy on pilgrimage to Jerusalem that does not change according to government policy.

For more than 40 years, the church has barred Copts from visiting Jerusalem and has taken an absolute stand against normalization in all its forms.

Rabih explained to Al-Akhbar that during the time of late Grand Sheikh Jad al-Haq Ali Jad al-Haq in the 1980s, Al-Azhar vocally opposed normalization with Israel and Muslims visiting Jerusalem.

His position was in response to fatwas by some clerics allowing such visits following the Oslo Accords between the Palestinian authority and the Zionist government. Al-Haq also refused to meet Israeli President Ezer Weizman during his visit to Egypt in 1996.

Wasil said that solidarity with Jerusalem can be expressed by supporting its people politically and economically, thus establishing their presence in the city.

Former Grand Mufti Nasr Farid Wasil condemned Gomaa’s visit to Jerusalem and warned that “visiting Jerusalem while it is under Zionist occupation is a form of normalization.”  

“It insinuates that the question of occupation has been solved, as if it can be visited by everyone and that there is no longer any need for independence or calling for Zionists to lift their control over Jerusalem,” he said.

Wasil said that solidarity with Jerusalem can be expressed by supporting its people politically and economically, thus establishing their presence in the city and being a thorn in the side of plans to Judaize it. The censure of political, cultural, and economic normalization with Israel should continue, according to Wasil.

Historically, Al-Azhar’s position on normalization and the Camp David agreement between Egypt and Israel has fluctuated depending on the general politics of the country and the president at the time’s position.

In 1952, a law was enacted giving the president of the republic the right to appoint the Grand Sheikh instead of senior Al-Azhar scholars.

This influenced the political positions of Al-Azhar clergy, who represent the oldest religious institution in the Islamic world.

While Sadat’s visit to Israel in 1977 caused widespread Arab and Islamic fury, Al-Azhar’s Grand Sheikh at the time, Mohammad al-Bisar, provided religious cover for the visit.

At the same time, Grand Mufti Abdel Halim Mahmoud issued a fatwa facilitating the peace accords, going against an Al-Azhar policy dating back to 1956 forbidding reconciliation with Israel because it had usurped Palestine and displaced its people.

The religious scholars’ committee at the time qualified the long-standing policy by saying that

“reconciliation with Israel is not permissible under sharia since the usurper insists on usurpation and it would enable the offender to continue in its claims.”

In 1952, a law was enacted giving the president of the republic the right to appoint the Grand Sheikh instead of senior Al-Azhar scholars.Today, under the leadership of Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayeb, Al-Azhar’s stand on normalization remains unclear. He commented on the mufti’s visit to Jerusalem saying that he had not known about it and that he will not visit Jerusalem while it is under occupation.

Tayeb was reluctant to express an official position on Gomaa’s visit, which was made without the permission of the institution he represents. The current stance differs from Al-Azhar’s position during Mubarak’s time, when it was headed by Tantawi and explicitly supported normalization.

Tantawi was not satisfied by shaking hands with the Israeli president in front of the cameras, he also issued a series of fatwas, described by observers as unusual, allowing the creation of the separation wall between Egypt and Gaza. He said the wall would protect Egypt from its enemies.

Amna Nasir, professor of faith and philosophy at Al-Azhar University, said that regardless of the official position of the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, most scholars have been in agreement for a long time about not visiting Jerusalem while it is under occupation.

“This position is shared with the Egyptian [Coptic] church that bars Christians from visiting until the liberation of the holy city from Jewish desecration, regardless of some Copts visiting Jerusalem lately,” she said.

Nasir expressed “fear that the Mufti’s visit to al-Aqsa mosque will extinguish the hostility Arabs and Muslims have toward Israel.” She considers it a call for normalization with the Zionist enemy under the pretext of visiting al-Aqsa mosque.

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.

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