Al-Azhar’s Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb said Tuesday that there have been vicious and systematic attacks against the institution and that it is a big conspiracy against Islamic civilization.
Tayyeb’s statements came during Egypt’s 3rd international Dar al-Ifta conference titled The Role of Fatwa in Creating a Stable Society, which is being held in Cairo with the participation of representatives from 60 countries.
Tayyeb added that it is not accidental that this attack coincides with the destruction of Arab and Islamic countries over the last few years, and dubious calls from now and then to destruct the prestige and respect of Azhar. He also said that the attacks are parallel to dubious plans to destroy the heritage of Muslims and ridicule its Sheikhs and renowned figures.
The Grand Sheikh said it is now common to see the condemnation of Azhar and its methods after any incident of terrorism, in a failed attempt to distort its history in the minds of Muslims.
“We now know the timing of this attack after we closely monitored it, and found that it occurs in two cases: the first after incidents of terrorism and the second whenever Azhar achieves success in delivering its message at home or abroad. And the plan in this case is to silence and hide its good deeds, or the search for the mistakes it makes and to broadcast and exaggerate them,” Tayyeb said.
He claimed that the attack on Islamic civilization and Azhar coincides with collective demands to allow homosexuality to be considered as a human right, in disregard to the youth of the East, who know their “manhood.”
The sheikh also expressed his innate disgust with what he considers the “deviant” and “fatal ethical disease of homosexuality.”
This attack, according to Tayyeb, coincided with calls in the West for equality between women and men in inheritance, and the permission of Muslim women to marry non-Muslims. He says this is a new chapter of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women — and that now the Arabs and Muslims are expected to abide by it and cancel their previous objections to equality.
He pointed out that the right scholars and the people of Fatwa these days have been plagued by a kind of pressure and harassment that they haven’t faced before — an attack on the heritage of Muslims, followed by confusion among people who are not able to know or understand, and with no respect for over 1.5 billion people who cherish this heritage.
“It is now usual (for anyone) to take the words from Sheikhs out of context… and then broadcast it on talk shows, and to attack Islam’s Sharia through a dialogue filled with sophistry, exaggeration and confusion,” Tayyeb said.
The Grand Sheikh proposed to the conference the establishment of specialized scientific departments in the faculties of Islamic law or faculties of Islamic sciences in the name of Department of Fatwa and Sciences next year.
The Minister of Religious Endowments Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa said in his speech that the intrusion of non-specialists into the Fatwa field has opened the doors wide to the strife in the world. “Terrorism has no religion and no homeland, and poses a constant danger to societies and it needs the efforts of scientists to confront abnormal ideas that destroy societies,” Gomaa said.
Gomaa added that accurate Fatwa contributes to the security of nations and countries, and renewing the religious discourse is not an easy job and needs determination. He also pointed out that humanity must cooperate among all countries of the world to confront terrorism, and that scientists especially have to refute the opinions and ideas of militants.
It is imperative for Muftis to lay the foundations for the control of the Fatwa, Al Gomaa explained.
“The growing phenomenon of terrorism and extremism is the result of the issuance of these misguided Fatwas that deviate from the correct and moderate approach. This has had the worst effect of the spread of violence and chaos, the destruction of security and peace and the threat of stability and tranquility, which are the rights of communities and individuals,” the Mufti of Egypt Shawki Allam, and president of the conference, said in his speech.
