Sissi launches campaign to combat Islamic extremism with education

Mixed reactions as Egyptian president recruits scholars to counter radical ideology with moderate Islam

BY TAMAR PILEGGI, TOI

A campaign by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to combat radical jihadist ideology with Islamic education has been met with mixed reactions.

According to a Reuters report on Sunday, Sissi sees Al-Azhar University — the 1,000-year old center for Islamic learning — as a key to combating radicalism and reforming Islam. And while the institution is cooperating, critics say the president’s two-year crackdown on Islamists and Islamism has been too heavy-handed.

Al-Azhar University was the site of several clashes between students and police after the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, as protests against military rule descended into violence. Egyptian security forces have also been battling a wild surge of terror activity in the Sinai peninsula in particular, and within Egypt in general, since the military coup by Sissi that ousted that year.

Sissi’s crackdown has included outlawing the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and its Palestinian affiliate Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

In January, the president addressed Egypt’s religious leadership and declared that a “revolution” within Islam was needed to modernize long-held religious interpretations that have made the Muslim world a source of “destruction” and pitted it against the rest of the world.

“You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire world is waiting. The entire world is waiting for your next word because this nation is being torn apart,” he was quoted as saying.

Sissi’s public calls for reform were widely praised by the West, and placed the Egyptian president at the forefront of those seeking modernization within Islam.

Since then however, the university — with 450,000 faculty and research students in a network of more than 9,000 schools across Egypt — has struggled under the magnitude of the task of reform.

Al-Azhar’s teachers, clerics and researchers have managed to make minor changes in the curriculum and removed things that have “no place in modern life,” including texts on slavery and on refusing to greet Christians or Jews.

According to the Sunday report, an introduction to an online version of a theology book that was recently changed now reads, “We present this scientific content to our sons and daughters and ask God that he bless them with tolerance and moderate thought … and for them to show the right picture of Islam to people.”

Mirroring radicals’ successful social media campaign to reach disenfranchised Muslim youth, the university has launched a number of social media accounts including a YouTube channel dedicated to countering propaganda and discouraging radicalism.

In addition, an online monitoring center allowing the university to track militant statements on social media has been launched recently.

A university official was quoted as saying that he considered the changes implemented so far to be “reasonable,” and while Al-Azhar was built on longstanding Islamic heritage, “not all of it is sacred.”

Al-Azhar has also announced new rules stating that students or faculty members engaged in incitement, or caught participating in protests promoting violence or vandalism, would be expelled or fired.

Dean of the Islamic theology faculty at al-Azhar, Professor Abdel Fattah Alawari, told Reuters that specialized panels had been established to review textbooks to ensure they do not encourage extremism.

Not everyone is happy with the university’s new approach. Critics say that Sissi’s government takeover makes it difficult to preach moderation and have dismissed al-Azhar as a government mouthpiece that favors military and political elites and ignores the poor.

Others say the president’s plan lacks clear direction in its implementation and long-term goals.

According to the report, some of al-Azhar’s students said that the campaign is counter productive, and that the government’s heavy-handed crackdown against Muslim Brotherhood supporters actually radicalized young Egyptians that would not have been otherwise.

A theology student speaking to Reuters said that the suppression of political opponents sparked a hatred in some students against the government and police. He said that after being tortured in detention for two months, two of his friends left for Syria to join the Islamic State.

Despite the criticisms, Sissi remains committed to his campaign against Islamic extremism and is encouraging the university to implement additional changes to promote moderation.

During a recent speech, the president was quoted as saying: “We need to move faster and more effectively.”