AFRICA/EGYPT - Egyptian Grand Mufti: political Islam has become "a nightmare" for Muslims and the whole world

Saturday, 28 November 2020 middle east   islam   political islam   muslim brotherhood   sharia  

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - The historical phenomenon of political Islam, which was intended to be an appeal to proclaim one's belonging to Islam and to awaken the Islamic faith in people's hearts, adhering to Islamic values and the noblest morals, "has turned out to be a real disaster", turning "into a nightmare that disturbs not only the Islamic Umma, but the whole world". This is what Sheikh Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam, current Grand Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt reports. The Egyptian Grand Mufti expressed this on Friday 27 September, during his weekly interview broadcast on the satellite channel Sada Elbalad, in the program conducted by the journalist Hamdi Rizk. Political Islam - added Sheikh Shawki Allam - represents a political exploitation of the Islamic faith, implemented to achieve certain gains in power, and is a phenomenon that has often surfaced in various forms in the historical history of Islam. The declared target of the Grand Mufti's criticisms is the Muslim Brotherhood movement, that emerged in the 20th century from the preaching of Hasan al Banna (1906-1949). The Grand Mufti, in his TV speech, also outlined the historical ancestry of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Sheikh Shawki Allam traced the ideological errors attributed to the current manifestations of political Islam to Kharigiti, followers of the Islamic sect (considered heretical by other branches of Islam) born in 657 AD. starting from the dissent that broke out among the followers of the fourth Caliph Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (cousin and son-in-law of Mohammad) on the legitimacy of resolving the question of succession to the caliphate by means of an arbitration.
According to the Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the movements of political Islam have failed not because of adverse historical circumstances or because of the repression suffered by the established powers, but "because of their bad doctrine and methodology", as their religious, moral and ethical project was founded "on inconsistent bases, wrong ideas and false perceptions". According to the Grand Mufti, the objectives of the Sharia can only be pursued through the legitimate institutions of the State, and cannot be guaranteed by movements that oppose legitimate civil authorities.
In July, as reported by Agenzia Fides (see Fides, 18/7/2020), the Egyptian Grand Mufti Shawki Allam had recognized that Islamic law does not contain any legal objection to the possibility of building churches using money belonging to Muslims.
The office of the Grand Mufti of Egypt is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice. The holder of this position chairs the "House of Fatwa" (Dar al Ifta al Misryah), a legal advisory committee on Islamic legal issues. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 28/11/2020)


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