Top Egyptian cleric justifies suicide attacks (Religion of Peace alert)

In an exclusive interview with Insight magazine, the new grand mufti of Egypt – the highest religious authority in the land and a man who has the power to issue fatwas and interpretations of shari'a law – has defended Palestinian suicide bombings and called the Rev. Jerry Falwell a terrorist because of his views on Islam.

As in most other Arab countries, the Egyptian state appoints the grand mufti. President Hosni Mubarak named Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayyeb to the post earlier this year after his predecessor issued a ruling in favor of suicide bombings by Palestinians. Ironically, Al-Tayyeb has taken a stance similar to the previous grand mufti.

Al-Azhar is theoretically neutral and it supposedly serves as the shared authority of all four major Sunni sects of Islam (Malikiyyah, Shafi'iyyah, Hanafiyyah, and Hanbaliyyah) as well as for Wahhabis. In practice, however, the university and in particular the appointment of the Grand Mufti have been dominated by Wahhabis ever since the 1970s.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada have further radicalized al-Azhar to the point that the last Grand Mufti has openly endorsed suicide bombing. In the absence of the caliphate, there is essentially no theological academy that can stand up and tell al-Tayyeb or Abu Laila that they're wrong.

I should also note that the university was the main incubator and ideological font for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian branch of which was headed by none other than Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Rifa Ahmed Taha, the top three leaders of al-Gamaa Islamiyyah and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Thanks. here is an fragment about Al-Azhar from an article from FrontPage magazine.com:

"The mosque had been founded by Shia from Tunisia in the tenth century. Perhaps, because of this lineage, Al Azhar tolerated dissident sects long after the Shia vacated the mosque in the twelfth century. Proponents of nearly all varieties of Islamic legal thinking--mu'tazila, ahl-al-hadith, and usuli alike--found intellectual homes in Al Azhar. To be sure, Al Azhar shifted with the politics of the times. After Napoleon conquered Egypt in 1798, the mosque's leaders made slandering the French occupiers a religious crime; during the Ottoman era, the school excelled at producing pliant scholars versed in the empire's favored hanafi legal school. But, for the most part, Al Azhar's acceptance of intellectual diversity continued regardless of fluctuations in Egypt's political leadership.

At least up until the post-colonial era, that is. In 1961, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the school. Sheiks at Al Azhar became government-paid functionaries--and were expected to conduct themselves as such, promoting Nasser's vision of a secular pan-Arab socialism. As Gilles Kepel, the French historian of political Islam, writes in his book Jihad, "By linking the reformed Azhar institution too directly to the state, Nasser's regime deprived it of credibility. ... A vacuum had been created, to be filled by anyone ready to question the state and criticize governments in the name of Islam."

The vacuum was filled by proponents of radical Islamism--first by theorist Sayyid Qutb (who was hung by Nasser in 1966) and his comrades in the Muslim Brotherhood and then, more gradually, by Wahhabi clerics supported by Saudi Arabia. In 1962, Saudi Arabia founded the Muslim World League to fund the distribution of Korans, the production of Wahhabi scholarship, and the building of mosques throughout the globe. And, over the course of the next four decades, the Saudis steadily purchased the ideological direction of Al Azhar. It started subtly, with cushy Gulf sabbaticals for scholars. "In six months on sabbatical, they would earn twenty years' salary," says Abou El Fadl. As these contributions became more customary--and scholars became increasingly eager to supplement their $40-a-month salaries--the Saudis expanded their influence. Through the Muslim World League, they began endowing chairs for scholars and funding departments. By the late '90s, it was growing difficult to find an Azhari who hadn't benefited from Saudi largesse--and who hadn't returned the favor with pro-Wahhabi scholarship."

http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=4613

"Moral Hazard: The Life of a Liberal Muslim"

i read that article shortly after posting this one, but your post was still very interesting, AE.

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