A new battle that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi appears to have won this time by confronting Sheikh Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb, as the House of Representatives approved amendments to the Dar al-Ifta law, despite the objections of al-Tayyib and the Council of Senior Religious Scholars.

On Sunday, the parliamentarians agreed to amend the law regulating Dar Al Iftaa to include it affiliated with the cabinet instead of the Ministry of Justice, and to consider it as an independent religious entity, which was rejected by some deputies and the representative of Al-Azhar as affecting the independence of Al-Azhar.

The law ends the method adopted in 2012 during the era of the late President Mohamed Morsi, according to which the mufti is elected by direct secret ballot, in which members of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars headed by Sheikh Al-Azhar vote.

On the other hand, the law establishes a different mechanism that stops the authority of the Senior Scholars Authority when selecting three candidates for the position from inside or outside the body, and then raises those nominations to the President of the Republic, who the law gave him absolute power to choose from among the three candidates, and gave him the right to extend the mufti after he It reaches the legal age.

For its part, the joint committee of the committees: Religious Affairs and Endowments, Plan and Budget and Constitutional Affairs in Parliament - in a previous report - affirmed that the draft law aims to reorganize the Fatwa House and give it an independent legal personality and independence.

According to the report of the Joint Committee, the draft law aims to reorganize everything related to the mufti in terms of: his job status, procedures for appointment and selection, the duration of his tenure, renewal for him, his powers, powers, and whoever acts on his behalf in managing the affairs of the home in general in certain circumstances.

The House of Representatives approves in principle the amendments to the Dar al-Ifta ’law that require it to follow the Ministry of Justice in place of Al-Azhar, which is considered by the Council of Senior Scholars as an aggression against Al-Azhar pic.twitter.com/qeYyn1pSGq

- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) July 19, 2020

Constitutional violation and a parallel entity

During the approval session of the law, the representative of Al-Azhar Mohamed Al-Dowaini, Secretary-General of the Senior Scholars Committee, said that the draft law infringes on the powers of Al-Azhar, indicating that any religious body that is created is an integral part of Al-Azhar’s message, “and whoever says otherwise constitutes an explicit violation of the constitution.” That the subordination of the House of Fatwa to the honorable Azhar.

Al-Dowaini warned against the betrayal of the Dar Al-Ifta’a against Al-Azhar by saying, "If strife and discord are planted between Al-Azhar and the religious institutions, and the Issuing House is allowed to circumvent the specializations of Al-Azhar, we will only make a different speech."

The Secretary-General of the Council of Senior Scholars explained that the Fatwa House does not have the independence of legal opinion, noting that there are issues in which it is essentially returned to the Council of Senior Scholars, and that (this) law - in addition to its violation of the constitution - works to create an entity parallel to Al-Azhar, which exceeds The limits of the dispute over jurisdiction.

Last Saturday evening, local media reported the text of a letter sent by Al-Azhar to Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Al, including the opinion of the Council of Senior Scholars on the law, stressing that the articles of this project violate the constitution and affect the independence of Al-Azhar and its affiliated bodies, led by the Council of Senior Scientists, Al-Azhar University and the Islamic Research Academy .

The speech indicated that the constitution stipulated that Al-Azhar is the primary reference in all religious and legal matters that are forefront.

He added that it is not true what was mentioned in the introduction to the law that there is a separation between the Ifta and Al-Azhar about 700 years ago, and that there is a separate entity (Dar Al-Ifta), stressing that the seat of the Ifta was in Al-Azhar.

He continued that all the positions of the Ifta ’in Egypt throughout the Ottoman era were in the hands of the scholars of Al-Azhar: the most famous of them was the Iftaa of the Sultanate, Cairo, and the regions, explaining that the proposed draft law included aggression on the competence of the authority of senior scholars in Al-Azhar and its independence.

I refuse to be a house belonging to the Fatwa Council of Ministers or belonging to the Minister of Justice ,
I refuse to break away from the Dar Al - Azhar Fatwa

The House of Representatives session Sunday, July 19, while discussing the Dar Al Iftaa Bill

Engineer Haitham al-Hariri,
member of parliament
Muharram Bey, Gharbal, and Apis pic.twitter.com/4skfuLNlRI

- Haitham Al Hariri (@HaithamElhariri) July 20, 2020

A new battle

Twitter and activists said that the new law is a new battle between al-Sisi and al-Tayyib, in the context of the ongoing battles between the two parties, such as issues of verbal divorce and the so-called renewal of religious discourse and the responsibility of heritage for violence and terrorism, issues that sparked controversy between the two parties, some of which were live .

The only authority that Sisi does not fully own or control is the authority to appoint or remove the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, thanks to the fortification of the post after a vigorous effort led by al-Tayyib in 2012 to approve amendments to some provisions of Law No. 103 of 1961 related to the reorganization of Al-Azhar and the bodies it covers.

In June 2016, Al-Tayeb launched the "Al-Azhar Strategy" in reform and renewal, which includes 15 axes, and depends on modern means of communication, whether through social networks, satellite stations, newspapers, and others.

But he has always complained about the closure of television channels and newspapers in front of Al-Azhar and its sheikhs, noting that "there was a crackdown on Al-Azhar" and that it was in the interest of "ISIS" (ISIS).

Napoleon could not harm the honorable Al-Azhar and the English occupation of Egypt was unable to touch Al-Azhar badly, but the July 23, 1952 gang was the one who messed with
Al-Azhar.

- the last Accont # 3 Dr. N Wu R (@ thegoodmanback0) July 20, 2020

Unfortunately, I sat on His Holiness Al-Azhar the day I sat next to the Sisi coup and gave him religious legitimacy .. pic.twitter.com/h2PvKFhnWe

- The Danger® ™ (@JaberDayi) July 19, 2020

Fatwas were separated from Al - Azhar Al - Azhar , despite protest G decision
means eh left ???
I mean, Sisi will be the source of the fatwa, but
Al-Azhar will be educational only ... !!
Egypt is entering secularism from its widest doors

- Al-Masry (@EL___masry) July 19, 2020

After amending the Dar al-Ifta law and transferring its mobilization to the Ministry of Justice, I propose to amend the Al-Azhar Law and transfer its affiliation to Sisi as a doctor, philosopher, and messenger. Once and without them,
God will curse you against the oppressors

- Egypt or the World (@ 6wUJbLPxR1k7yEH) July 20, 2020

What do they do with Al-Azhar ?!
And why? # Al-Azhar https://t.co/5yPVzNYjYq

Ayman Al-Sayyad (@a_sayyad) July 18, 2020

Al-Sisi does not leave an occasion unless he calls for the necessity of "renewing religious discourse", blaming the sheikh's sheikh for the responsibility of responding to his call that he made on January 1, 2015, during the state’s celebration of the Prophet’s birthday, calling for what he described as a religious revolution to change misconceptions.

During the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday last year, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar attacked what he described as “cries that consistently called into question the value of the Prophet’s Sunnah, its authenticity, its authority, and the contestation of its narratives”.

It seems that the speech of Sheikh Al-Azhar raised the ire of Sisi, who ended his written speech, and then clashed with what Al-Tayeb mentioned directly, stressing that the speech of Sheikh Al-Azhar pushed him to speak a little outside the context, adding, "I hope that no one understands my words as offending anyone."

Al-Sisi asked, "Who offended Islam the most: the call to leave the Sunnah of the Prophet and only the Qur’an, or the wrong understanding and extreme extremism? What is the reputation of Muslims in the world now?"

Al-Azhar rejects a draft law to regulate the Iftaa House before discussing it in the Egyptian Parliament # Egypt pic.twitter.com/P6L1zTVV2s

- Al Jazeera Live (@ajmubasher) July 19, 2020

The dispute between Tayyib and Sisi is due to the positions of the first to reject violence, which began in the wake of the “Republican Guard events” on July 8, 2013, five days after Sisi’s coup when he was defense minister against the elected president (Morsi) when the army killed dozens of opponents. Al-Tayeb demanded the opening of a judicial investigation, the formation of a committee for national reconciliation, and the release of all detainees.

The second time in the aftermath of the violent dissolution of the coup opponents in Rab'a al-Adawiya Square on August 14, 2013, by force, killing and wounding thousands of people, al-Tayyib announced, in an audio statement, that he acquitted him of what happened, before he retired in his hometown of Luxor.

Following Sisi's assumption of power in mid-2014, differences surfaced, and the conferences gathering him with Sheikh Al-Azhar turned into battlegrounds characterized by tension, attraction, outright attack and hinting, as well as successive crises such as the ISIS infidelity crisis, where al-Tayyib refused on December 11, 2014. The organization also called the media calculated on the system.