Zionist media and incitement against Al-Azhar and its sheikh

Highlights: Zionist media and incitement against Al-Azhar and its sheikh. Al Jazeera Mubasher website and channel published details of the Israeli Channel 12 attack on Al- Azhar. It is clear from the Zionists’ speech that they want to say frankly: Islamic discourse and the authentic Islamic approach are in conflict with Zionist interests, as occupying forces. This is the position of Islam itself regarding any occupation, regardless of its type, gender, or religion. The most important question here is: Is it the approach of Al-azhar, or the approach to Islam?

Anyone who follows the Zionist media and policy’s attack on Al-Azhar and its sheikh thinks that Al-Azhar has changed, or has changed its methods, style, and speech, and this is completely false talk, as Al-Azhar has a firm position on the nation’s issues.

This feeling among the nation, of the value and stature of Al-Azhar, makes the sheikhdom - an institution and sheikh - feel this responsibility, and be clothed with the prestige of the position, and the prestige of the location (Al-Jazeera)

Since the events of the "Al-Aqsa Flood", the position of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif - as an institution and sheikh - has been an honorable position, supportive of the people of Palestine in general, and Gaza in particular, and at their heart is the resistance. These positions greatly disturbed Israeli politicians and their media, and their attacks and incitement have been repeated since the beginning of the events. Anyone who observes Al-Azhar’s speech and its sheikh will find it to be a speech that is in keeping with the ongoing disasters in Gaza.

Recently, Al Jazeera Mubasher website and channel published details of the Israeli Channel 12 attack on Al-Azhar and its sheikh, and on Al-Azhar’s curricula as well. Israeli politicians have previously called for pressure on the Sheikh of Al-Azhar to silence him, or change him, which raises several questions here:

Did Al-Azhar change and so did the tone of the Zionists change against it and its methods? Is the problem in the Al-Azhari curriculum, as the Zionists claim? What did Al-Azhar and its sheikh do that upset them? What are the factors that make the position of Al-Azhar and its Sheikh strong?

It is clear from the Zionists’ speech that they want to say frankly: Islamic discourse and the authentic Islamic approach are in conflict with Zionist interests, as occupying forces, and this is the position of Islam itself regarding any occupation, regardless of its type, gender, or religion.

Has Al-Azhar changed?

Whoever looks at Al-Azhar’s speeches from many centuries ago will find that its position on these issues is the same. What has changed at times is the position of some of its sheikhs, to tone down its tone, or remain silent under pressure, which did not happen with its current sheikh, who has been besieged by the media in an unprecedented manner in the history of the country. The sheikhdom, to the extent that the regime’s media personnel dared to attack it, the sheikhdom, and the Al-Azhar curricula, without providing the right of response guaranteed by the media in all means.

What has changed now is the silencing of most of the Islamic religious institutions in the Arab and Islamic world, and whoever spoke among them spoke within the limits set for him by the policy of his state and its system. This change in performance made Al-Azhar appear as if it alone was undertaking the task, but the truth is that Al-Azhar is steadfast in its position, and steadfast. On his message and method, which is what other scholars and independent bodies do that express the Islamic position as it should be.

The curriculum of Islam or Al-Azhar?

The most important question here: Is it the approach of Al-Azhar, or the approach of Islam? The problem here is not in Al-Azhar, because the position itself is the established and consistent position regarding Islamic schools of all ages, and their different intellectual and jurisprudential stripes.

Whoever returns to the ancient universities and schools such as: Al-Zaytouna in Tunisia, Al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco, and the rest of the scientific incubators in the Arab and Islamic world, if he left them the true expression of their position and method, would not differ one iota from the position of Al-Azhar.

This is what colonialism tried at all times to produce a distorted, distorted version of Islam, which flattered and acknowledged the legitimacy of the occupation, and abolished the obligation of jihad and resistance to the occupier. This happened with the British occupation in India, by expelling sects such as the Qadianis and others, and in other countries in other forms.

Factors for Al-Azhar’s stability in its position

There is no doubt that there are several factors that contribute to the steadfastness of Al-Azhar - as an institution and as a sheikh - in this strong position towards the Palestinian issue and the issues of the nation. Perhaps the most important of them, in our view, are the following:

Al-Azhari inheritance

One of the first factors: the authentic Al-Azhar heritage, which whenever some try - under pressure - to break away from it, they return it to it. Al-Azhar and its history are not known for abandoning the issues of the nation, despite it sometimes going through years of weakness, but the position on the issues of the Islamic world remains constant, because it is essentially an institution owned by it. The nation does not have power.

The relationship of authority with him was a limited administrative one, and in the most severe cases of military tyranny during the era of Abdel Nasser, he allowed Al-Azhar the freedom to express its position on the nation’s issues, without interfering in internal issues.

This inheritance is what Sheikh Al-Tayeb resorted to as a way out of the restrictions imposed on the institution regarding the current issue of Gaza and Palestine.

In addition to his strong statements that keep pace with events and hold every person responsible in the nation, we see him with the assistance of the diligent scientific team, whether in the Islamic Research Academy, the Heritage Revival Office at Al-Azhar, or other institutions - these scientific bodies have an undeniable role in researching and exploring Al-Azhar’s legacy in this regard. Issues, including: What was issued at the Cairo International Book Fair, from a series of books entitled: Al-Azhar’s position on the Palestinian issue, in several parts - old research and articles by Al-Azhar and its scholars on Palestine were collected, as the issue is not new, and aggression is as it is, but what is new is Building on this huge Al-Azhari legacy.

The nation's last habitat

Al-Azhar and its sheikh feel that they are a last resort - after God Almighty - in taking the appropriate Islamic position in such major crises, and despite the limited capabilities, but in light of the general weakness and authoritarian control over religious institutions in the Islamic world, Al-Azhar continues to have its position with the nation, and it continues to have His prestige among the ruling regimes is what former Egyptian President Mohamed Naguib expressed in his memoirs, when he said: Whoever wants to control the rule of Egypt must have two institutions beholden to him: the army and Al-Azhar.

The prestige of the position

This feeling among the nation, of the value and stature of Al-Azhar, makes the sheikhdom - an institution and sheikh - feel this responsibility, and it is filled with the prestige of the position and the prestige of the position, among the nation, among the officials, and among the enemy of the nation. All of these feelings raise the degree of feeling responsibility, and carrying out the religious duty towards issues. The nation in general, and the issue of Gaza and Palestine in particular.

The incitement and attacks of the Zionist media only increase the institution and the sheikh’s feeling of the value and stature of the position and approach, and their adherence to the role sought from it.

One day this occupation will end, and it will disappear. This is what the Great Imam al-Tayyib expressed in one of his strong statements, which enraged the Zionists and their media. It is a statement that clearly indicates that it was placed in the Imam’s mind, and therefore he is not crying - nor is the institution - over satisfaction or discontent. The Zionists, or others, and it is a sentence that indicates the small size of the occupation in his eyes, and the greatness and value of the nation in his eyes, and therefore he only fears his Lord and its Lord.