Cairo University President Gaber Nassar announced Saturday the sacking of Political Science Professor Seif Al-Din Abdel-Fattah, after exceeding the absence limit for his occupation. Abdel-Fattah is a former aide to ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. According to Nassar, Abdel-Fattah received warning letters to inform him of the legal limit of absence in university laws, which considers “a faculty member resigned if he does not show up to work for a month”. Abdel-Fattah is a vocal opponent of the government of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in many media outlets, and accuses the army of “staging a coup in 2013 that toppled the regime of Morsi”. Since the forced ouster of Morsi, public universities have been suspending lecturers suspected of pro-Morsi inclinations. Last June, Zagazig University fired Morsi from its engineering faculty, citing his prison sentence. In June, Bassem Ouda, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, who served for half a year as the country’s supply and interior trade minister, was also dismissed from his position in Cairo University’s engineering faculty. Further, in March, political science lecturer Pakinam Al-Sharqawi, who was also an aide to Mrosi, was suspended from duty for alleged violence. Cairo University, the country’s major seat of learning, also suspended former minister of international cooperation Amr Darrag, for similar reasons last February. Darrag is active vocal Muslim Brotherhood proponent online and in the media. A spokesperson for the Brotherhood said: “All these kinds of suspensions are politicised. The current regime wants to keep its loyalists in power, while banning all critical thought.” During Morsi’s reign, hundreds of Brotherhood members were appointed in ministerial positions, as well as governmental institutions, expect for the police, and the army, which ended up leading the ouster of the Islamist president in July 2013. Currently, thousands of the group’s members are prosecuted in courts, serving prison sentences, on death row, or are fugitives inside or outside the country. Top officials of the group continue to oppose the government of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi through anti-government media outlets, lobbying in foreign governments, or by establishing parallel diplomatic delegations.
Pro-Morsi lecturer dismissed from Cairo University
