Religious Censorship in the Azhar

Arab-West Report Paper 12, January 2009 Title: The Religious censorship of the Azhar Author: Magnus Bredstrup Reviewer Bāhir Dukhān Edited by: Cornelis Hulsman, Editor-in-chief Arab-West Report, Clare Turner, academic language editor CIDT Religious Censorship in the Azhar Magnus Bredstrup List of contents: Introduction Historical background 1961 reforms The Azhar reasserts its influence Censorship in the 1980s and 1990s Censorship under Shaykh Muhammad Sayyid Tantāwī Nawal al-Sa'dawi and Haydar Haydar Conclusion Introduction Freedom of expression has been a widely discussed issue in the Middle East in recent years, especially following the publication in 2005 of the Danish cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammad in a satirical way. While Jyllands Posten, the Danish newspaper that published the cartoons argued for their right to ridicule religions and religious figures, this view was met with little sympathy in Arab countries where many people seem to have a quite different view of freedom of expression in relation to religion. The controversy aroused by these drawings sparked discussions concerning the limits of freedom of expression and the cartoons were condemned by governments and organizations in the region. Such calls for limiting freedom of expression when it is related to sensitive religious issues have a long history in the Middle East as accusations of blasphemy and ridiculing religion have often been asserted. Egypt has thus seen a number of organizations and individuals arguing for the need to censor and ban material and stop it from being published in the public domain. While a wide range of entities and individual activists have been active in promoting censorship, perhaps the most prominent institution to engage in banning books has been the Islamic Research Academy under the Azhar University. The Azhar's role as a highly esteemed interpreter and arbiter in Islamic issues has given the institution special weight as an authority in censorship cases. The judgments of the Islamic Research Academy carry with them the weight of some of the most renowned Islamic scholars in the Muslim world and the academy is consulted by various Egyptian authorities on a wide range of issues related to Islam. It is thus a voice which the Egyptian state and public pay attention to and quite a few literary works have been banned as a result of its recommendations. The question of religious censorship is naturally one which has been discussed intensely in the public with arguments being put forth both for and against it. It brings to the fore difficult questions about whether religious sensitivities should be respected at the cost of freedom of expression or not, and how one is to judge literary works from a religious point of view. Statements made in literature necessitate a great deal of interpretation to understand them in their context and for example offensive statements being made by a certain character in a book can thus hardly be taken to be an indication of the author’s point of view. Nonetheless, literary works have been censored and banned for exactly such reasons as specific statements have been taken out of context and presented to the public, sparking outrage and demands for confiscation of the work and the punishment of the author. It should be said, however, that while the Azhar and the Egyptian authorities may ban a book, it is quite often the case that the book remains on the market, as increased publicity in connection with a ban and little actual regulation of the market tends to take place. This research paper deals with the censorship of the Islamic Research Academy and tries to place it in its historic context. In order to shed some light on the reasons that specific books have been banned, this paper will highlight a number of cases from recent years and seek to present the justifications behind banning various works. These justifications are highly relevant to current debates as they represent a rather different understanding of freedom of expression from the one that certain newspapers in Europe have been promoting since the publication of the aforementioned Danish cartoons. While the material on which this paper is based certainly does not provide a comprehensive overview of the censorship practices of the Azhar, it does nonetheless provide an interesting insight into the context and arguments for the implementation of religious censorship in Egypt. Historical background The Azhar University is one of the oldest Islamic universities in the world. The Azhar mosque was built in 969 CE and a madrasah (religious school) was connected with it in 988 CE. Studies in Islamic jurisprudence started in 975 CE under Abū al-Hasan cAlī Ibn Nucmān. While the university was initially a Shīcah institution, it took on a Sunnī orientation in the late Middle Ages and has remained so ever since. As a university, it issues academic degrees in a range of fields but the institution's prestige is based on its status as one of the most esteemed authorities on Islamic issues. It continues to retain this high prestige in the Islamic world but recent years have seen the institution's image tainted by government meddling in its affairs and public discussions about the institution's rule in Egyptian society and politics. Relations between the Egyptian state and the Azhar have changed a great deal in the last two hundred years. Muhammad cAlī sought to diminish the influence of the institution and therefore set in motion land reforms to nationalize waqf [religious endowments] land while he established a judiciary independent of the Sharīcah courts and a secular school system. During the early twentieth century, laws were introduced that centralized the Azhar and put more power into the hands of the grand shaykh. Jamāl cAbd al-Nāsir's regime saw the state take over all waqf land, abolish Sharīcah courts and expand the Azhar colleges. The result of the reforms was largely that the institution had little autonomy and was used to issue fatwás that supported the policies of Nāsir’s ideology. A policy to nationalize mosques and control them had been undertaken during Nāsir's reign but was sped up significantly after Mubārak assumed the presidency. While statistics indicate that there were some 3000 state mosques in 1962 and 14,000 private ones, this had changed to 50000 state mosques and 20,000 private mosques in 1992. The efforts to control mosques have been strongest in Upper Egypt and parts of Cairo where radical movements have been most active1. 1961 reforms The Azhar was reformed by Jamāl cAbd-Nāsir’s regime in 1961. The government alleged that the institution had been unable to keep up with modern times and the ulama [religious scholars] were presented to the public as upholders of conservative and traditional values, out of touch with the present day. Due to the political climate of the time, the ulama were unable to offer effective resistance to the government initiatives and the Azhar was thus reformed with two important changes to its structure. Firstly, it was decided that new science departments be established, introducing natural sciences, mathematics and other subjects, while the kuttāb, the religious schools of the Azhar, were replaced with ma'ahid [institutes]. Secondly the Azhar was brought entirely under government control and its administration was restructured2. The 1961 reforms also set up the legal framework for the Islamic Research Academy. Article 15 of law 103, 1961, states that “the Islamic Research Academy is the supreme authority for Islamic research and its task is to remove from it excesses and defects and the effects of political and sectarian fanaticism, to expand the spheres of knowledge about it at all levels and in all environments, and to express [its] opinion with regard to any sectarian problems or social problems related to faith it finds.” The role of the Islamic Research Academy [IRA] is further specified in Presidential Decree No. 250 of 1975 which 1 Mustafá, Tamir, 'Conflict and Cooperation between the State and Religious Institutions in Contemporary Egypt', Int. J. of Middle East Studies 32 (2000). pp. 4-8 2 Zeghal, Malika, 'Religion and Politics in Egypt: The Ulama of the Azhar, Radical Islam and the State (1952-1994) ',Int. J. of Middle East Studies 31 (1999) pp. 373-374 states that the IRA is to follow up on items that are published related to Islam and shall issue recommendations to those who work in the field of Islamic culture3. The Azhar reasserts its influence While the government succeeded in gaining control over the Azhar, this came to have negative consequences for the institution’s reputation. The image of the Azhar was thus tarnished in the eyes of the Egyptian public and especially in the view of Islamic militants. The rising extremist violence in the 1990s meant that the government needed a strong Islamic voice to counter the rhetoric of the al- Jamācah al-Islāmīyah. As the Azhar's influence on the extremists was limited because of its government affiliation, the organization was allowed to take a more independent stance on a number of issues. This increased power of the Azhar was visible in its propagation of clitoridectomy under Shaykh Jād al- Haqq, its criticism of the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, in Cairo in 1994 and the case of Faraj Fudah. Fudah was an Egyptian intellectual whom the Azhar scholars had accused of apostasy and who was subsequently murdered by Islamic extremists. Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazālī, a prominent member of the Islamic Research Academy at the time, argued during the ensuing trial that if the state was unwilling to put apostates to death, then others would have to do it.

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