Using Mosques as a Forum to Incite Killing

In an unprecedented political development, the Ministry of Endowment- which is the only official institution responsible for organizing Friday’s sermons and for appointing the Mosques' Imams— has recently resorted to exploiting mosques to provoke people's sentiment against civil society advocates and the idea of constitutional reform.

According to eye witnesses and El Masry El Youm newspaper, the Ministry of Endowment used El Fath and El Nour[1] mosques and several others to incite the fury of people against attorney at law Negad El Borai, Chairman of the Group for Democratic Development (GDD), and activist Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Chairman of the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies (ICDS). The two activists were described in the Friday’s sermon as traitors for having accepted funds from the US government in support of projects that would enhance democracy in Egypt. One of the Imams also described the call for constitutional amendment as an American infidel idea, and he urged the congregation to fight such traitors and ideas. It was such incitement by Islamic clerics that had in the past led to the assassination of Dr. Farag Fouda.

Denouncing this outrageous incident, the GDD demanded the resignation of the Minister of Endowment and asked for a public investigation of the incident. It also called both local and international civil society institutions to provide more support for democracy and reform advocates in Egypt. The Ibn Khladun Center for Development Studies has also deplored such hooliganism on the part of a government institution. This is not the first time in which the government cynically resorts to exploiting the religious establishment in order to relieve the pressure it is under from segments within civil society pushing for democratization. ICDS is currently sponsoring an Islamic reformation program, which it hopes will help educate the public, and the government, as to the true tolerant nature of Islam.