By Mai Shams El-Din
CAIRO: The unprecedented momentum created by the January 25 Revolution has led to a pressing need to find new realities in Egypt that suit the spirit of the historic uprising that led to the ouster of Egypt’s strongman Hosni Mubarak and his ailing regime.
The religious discourse in Egypt is one of those realities, the reformation of which is necessary considering the social role of religion in shaping behaviors, attitudes, and hence politics.
“There have been many shortcomings in the past and many inadequacies that muted the voice of Al-Azhar and caused a huge gap between traditional Azhari discourse and contemporary realities,” said Ibrahim Negm, advisor and spokesman for Egypt’s Grand Mufti Ahmed El-Tayeb.
Al-Azhar has long been criticized for its declining role in enriching the religious discourse in Egypt, hence allowing extremist discourses to fill the vacuum, often filling airtime and newspaper inches with shocking fatwas (non-binding religious edicts) that have often polarized society and tarnished the image of Muslims all over the world.
Negm says the reasons for such a setback are multifaceted, blaming educational methods of Al-Azhar as a main contributor to this antiquated Azhari religious discourse.
“They lack the supplementary material needed to cope with the changing realities of modernity, training, and miss the link between tradition and modernity.”
While Al-Azhar regressed because of its over-emphasis on tradition, the church on the other hand has been too seeped in spirituality.
In a country known for its deep-rooted Coptic history and its leading Orthodox Church, Copts in Egypt have often been criticized for their self-imposed social and political isolation.
“Coptic religious discourse has always been too concerned with complete spirituality where the most important message is to protect the faith and aspire for a better relationship with God,” Bishop Moussa, Youth Bishop of Egypt’s Orthodox Church, told DNE.
“Yes there was a strong passivity, especially in politics, because of fraudulent elections and marginalization of most of the Egyptian society which Copts are a part of, but with the changing realities post-January 25, things have to change,” he added.
Negm too stresses that the future of Al-Azhar’s religious discourse will include radical changes in its approach towards modernity.
“This involves taking many initiatives to review curricula and text books that include issues that are irrelevant to our contemporary needs and rituals, family relations and financial transactions for example,” Negm said.
“Not changing the basics, but reviewing them to fit the needs of modernity.”
Moussa on the other hand sees that a radical change in developing the social consciousness of Copts is needed.
“Without a mature social consciousness, Copts must know that their Christian faith in incomplete,” said Moussa. “Isolation is not healthy.”
Moussa believes that the cultural and national development of the Coptic character must be emphasized in Coptic religious discourse to face the new social realities.
“The church has always promoted dialogue with Muslims through [the official] Muslim-Christian Dialogue Committee,” says Moussa. “But this dialogue was on the intellectual level. It has to be taken to the lower levels. Religious dialogue is necessary to develop a strong and moderate religious discourse.”
To fill the gap created by near absence of Al-Azhar on the religious scene, “the new preachers” like Amr Khaled, Moez Masoud and Mostafa Hosni were the alternative; a group of young religious preachers addressing the needs of the youth, adapting to modernity, and adopting a language that appeals to the public.
Negm sees that Azhari scholars must master the tools to engage with modern society, which is what they lacked compared to the new preachers whose youthful spirit and modern approach have turned them into household names.
“Future Azhari scholars must adopt the language of the youth and get out of their ivory towers to address the needs of society,” he says.
Meanwhile, Moussa sees that merging traditional religious institutions with younger preachers is essential to have an influential religious discourse.
“Traditional institutions have experience and authenticity and the new generation of preachers enjoy a youthful energy,” says Moussa.
“Experience alone could lead to isolation, while modernity and energy alone cannot be tamed. What we need is to mix traditional experience with a modern and youthful outlook without shaking the religious basics.”
Al-Azhar’s absence from the religious scene paved the way for a wave of religious extremism which has led to sectarian tension in Egypt.
“Al-Azhar has always championed the Al-Asha’ri school of thought; which is the marriage between text, intellect and reason which gained a lot of support.”
Negm stresses that Al-Azhar will reassert this inclusive approach that is wide enough to embrace all differences in addition to promoting an educational method that stresses the ethics of Islam as much as it stresses its practices.
Convinced that the majority of Egyptians have a moderate humanitarian approach to religion, Moussa confirms that extremism has never been a part of the Egyptian mentality.
“We just have to trust that love never fails, because spreading this message of love in our religious discourse will absorb any shocks,” he said.
Despite growing concerns about the popularity and politicization of the Salafi trend which looks to the life and practices of the Muslim pious predecessors in the early period of Islam as a model for how Islam should be practiced, Negm says he is optimistic because he believes that the majority of Egyptians are “leaning more towards a moderate religious discourse long adapted by Al-Azhar.”
“But Al-Azhar has to do its homework,” he added, “the institution is already established, but more effort must be exerted to appeal to people’s sentiments. On the other hand, people must distinguish between preaching and scholarship, because not every preacher is capable to issuing a fatwa.”
