Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Fear God Sheikh of Al-Azhar

I remember when I spoke about the Burmese Buddhist Monks protests and I wonder why we do not have religious men like them,the photo I posted about the Sheikh of Al-Azhar drew some criticism , well I am sorry I will have to post this photo again in this post because it is too relevant

First of all as man of religious knowledge I respect Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, the current Sheikh of Al-Azhar ,even before he was appointed in the position "Sheikh of Al-Azhar " -"the head of Al-Azhar University" which is considered the highest religious position inscan0002 the Sunni world yet since being appointed in that position , the man seemed to be following the regime's orders  in a way that sometimes contradict his role as a Shekih and his responsibility towards the Islam and Muslims from fighting injustice in land ,seeking equity ,freedom and fighting corruption with all its kinds . The man seemed to forget the pioneer role of Al-Azhar in standing with righteousness  and followed the orders of Orba Palace in an automatic way.

With my all respect the man began to act in complete arrogance issuing strange Fatwas ,despite it is not from his role to issue Fatwas , yes he can issue according to his position but do not we have already a position independent from the Al-Azhar Shekih called the grand Mofty ??

Sheikh Tantawy began to issue Fatwas that tailored to fit with the regime's wants and needs using religion to scare people .

I mean from couple of weeks in Ramadan Tantawy came and said that those who spread and publish rumors from journalists should be lashed  ,that came in the same time of Ibrahim Eissa and the other journalists' trials

Tantawy made his Fatwa based upon a rule in Islam , of course he twisted his rule 180 degree using it not in the right place or time or context , yes it was about those who spread rumors and false claims especially against Women ,the original rule was about those who claim that a specific man or woman is adulterer without bringing 4 people as witnesses -thanks to IRC President- the rule as you see or did not say or even hint to  the journalists who are demanding the truth about their president's health who are exposing corruptions and thieve ,the thieves whose hands should be cut in public whoever they are according to the Islamic rule , why did the Sheikh ignored that rule in that time of huge corruption !!

Why he came up with this rule and forgot about the other rules !!!??? Interesting question with a disappointing answer in few words I would say the disease of hypocrisy reached to him and so no wonder the people began to search for other alternative for religion knowledge ,they know very well that this a governmental/regime speaker ,and  this is one of the reason why people in Egypt abandoned the traditional sheikhs "there are other reasons" and went to listen to other sheikhs,clerics and preachers ,regardless of their backgrounds , some of those Sheikhs were good , few of them in fact and the rest with all respect are very dangerous substitutes .many of them are spreading the Wahbi teachings I do not know on purpose or because of Ignorance , some of them are spreading sectarian division between the Muslims themselves that make you wonder and ask whom they are working for , the Sunni and Shiite game, now there are channels on the Nile Sat attacking the Shiites , saying that they are our main enemy instead of the Israelis who are occupying our third holiest site and want to destroy today before tomorrow .

Back to the strange fatwa , the man is insisting on it after the huge storm it created between the journalists and him ,he even made a provocative interview in the MBC channel with lots of firing statements , like for example how he is against the election system of Al-Azhar , you see in the old good days the Al-Azhar the Sheikh position was an election based position away from the government , but now the sheikh of Al-Azhar is chosen by the government , of course Tantawy must be against the election system because he knows very well that he would not have come to this position in the first place  if there were elections in the old institute , his justification is that this system creates hates between the co-workers !! Well those who hate him now are more than the co-workers for sure

Really May bless the soul of Sheikh Ali El-Maraghy who refused to issue a special Fatwa for King Farouk to forbid Queen Farida from re-marrying again after their Divorce??

Tantawy I am afraid became another governmental employee waiting for the orders of the regime ,forgetting that the worst kind of clerics are those following the tyrannies not God

It is sad because I know that this man has a huge responsibility over his shoulder that on the judgement day he would be asked about

7 comments:

  1. well, The Buhdists monks protests were wrong. Religon must never be involved with politics.

    However, we have to remeber that all his fatwas in social issues were very progressive which in turn makes it very difficult to appreciate by many people, especially that Al-Azhar had been domnated by wahbists using Saudi money in th seventies so as to under cut secular and progressive currents in the most influential Arab country-Egypt. For the Arabist and socilats streams pose a serious threat to oil colonials and their surrogates.

    I remeber that may god bless his sould, Imam Mohamed Hasan Al-Bahkoury was about to issue a fatwas that makes wine halal for mulims. Imam Mohamed Abdou was a serious reformist who revolutionuised Islamic thought. Alas, the religous instiution has been taken over by wahbised elemnts, and what is worse Sadat's unwise move of unleasing the Mulim bortherhood all HAVE TOTALLY RUINED EGYPT. We need a crisis project to save our country

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  2. The Buddhist Monks were wrong !! Oh yes the military junta that is ruling Burma and stealing the money of the people ,torturing them ...etc is right !!???

    Religion any religion is aganist injustice in land and that's the rule of the religious men to stand against injustice , I am sorry but there is no involvement with politics here

    again you are speaking just like the others about the progressive fatwas , and you are missing or ignoring the rest of the post about being a regime speaker , issuing Fatwas by the request ,wants and needs of a corrupted , very corrupted regime

    with my all respect why do you ask yourself why people are ignoring him despite his progressive fatwas and please do not tell it is a global wahabi fatwa because then we will be fooling ourselves

    about Al-Bahkoury , I do not know really about his fatwa but Wine is not halal , I am sorry this is my belief and this is what the Quran said ,I do not see what progress we can achieve from drinking Wine !!!

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  3. "The Buddhist Monks were wrong !! Oh yes the military junta that is ruling Burma and stealing the money of the people ,torturing them ...etc is right !!??? "

    I really can justify the way you jumped into the conclusion that I support the corrupt ,military Junta just because I oppose the involvment of monks in politics.

    There IS wide set of options apart of the above mentioned two


    With all due repect Zeinobia, you are being utterly inconsistent for you seem to be an advocate of liberal Egypt and monarchy while it seems that you are too conservative in your politcal thought as well as your perconal life. I can't see how would anyone labeled as a liberal royalist regard wine as harmful!?

    Wine is a a culture and way of life it inspires passion, love and tranquilty.

    "this is what the Quran said "

    No dear Zeinobia that is not what the Koaran said that is what the people who interpreted the Koran and formualted Islamic Juriprudence in the medival times said..

    The KORAN TALKED ABOUT THE HARMS IN WINE WHICH outweights the merits .

    When the holy Koranic texts are to be analysed, in order to interpret them, the socio-cultural contexts where the texts have been read must be taken into consderation. The Arab pennisula was a hot desert full of raiding, nomadic mobile, harsh , romantic, passionate people, with no central govenment and writen law. Thus drinking in such an harsh arid, yet beautiful and romantic envirnment could lead to atrocites. Dignity of man is the value laden in the text. the contemporary post modern man can definetly remain dignified even when they are drunk, and under the strict law enforcement mechanism , social pressure and values of modernity and now post modernity associated with industrial revolution and later information revolution- one could very well keep their dignity while drunk.

    About the progress achieved from driniking wine, well, I don't think there would be any- but that is not the issue involved, wine is is joyful drink and a healthy cult that is all- just like going to the theatre or eating out with your boyfriend

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  4. You're Tagged:

    http://fadfadation.blogspot.com/2007/11/tagging-you-and-your-blogwhy.html

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  5. seriously why do u bother arguing with him ?
    i think he lives in a parallel universe and reads a different history and quran ...
    am offended and hell am totally non religious

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  6. @Al-Hajaj , first of all I am not a royalist , second ironically I do not find a relation between drinking wine ,being liberal and even defending King Farouk who never drunk Wine or alchol to the last day of his life
    third I think the Quran is very clear when it prohibited Wine and all other alochol drinks, so no need to debate
    when you speak about that kind of life Wine represents I remember the Persians , in fact that was their life style according to the hard Greeks when Alexander invaded Persia
    The wine Pleasure Culture is the same Persian culture that destroyed the Abassy state in the middle age !!!!!!!!
    Again I do not find a relation between wine and progress

    @Fadfadation ,thanks dear , it has a while since I was tagged

    @No_angel , I have to argue this point ,already now there are many people who are speaking with the logic and do not ask me how or why

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  7. That is wrong dear Zeinobia, the wine culture adopted by indo-Iranian peoples collectively known as Persian was originally Arab Babylonian. When the Persian Barabrians sacked Iraq the Arab Iraqis civilised them and from there they adopted a wine cult which was never an integral part of persian everyday life.


    It was the Arabs who loved wine. For example Harroun El-Rasheed used to drink whiskey by barrels.




    By the way, Iranians don't drink wine, even the non religous ones. It is totally allien to their environement.


    Moreover, what Greeks and Persians are you talking about? that has not got any relevence with the topic we are discussing.


    All ancient cultures had wine cults......... we are talking about the reading of Koranic texts .

    About king Farouk, the man used to GAMBLE, DATE MANY WOMEN.
    That is alright with me I like cool people.

    I gamble and I go for one night stands myself, and so do, many good Egyptians.

    Yet, I conseder myself a pious Muslim with more knowledge about Islam than most of the contemporary sheikhs


    Unfortunately, the Iranian retarded revolution of Khomeini accompanied by the institutionalisation of wahabism in Egypt through the MBs are turning Egypt into a very boring place full.

    I hope that that difference in opinion will not be taken perconally

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