Cairo: The head of Al Azhar, the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world, has put forward a Bill of Rights upholding freedom of expression and belief ahead of the drafting of Egypt's new constitution.
The bill, which was announced on Tuesday, is a bid by Al Azhar to assert its role as the voice of moderate Islam in the face of the growing political power of more conservative Islamic groups in Egypt following the overthrow in February last year of President Hosni Mubarak. The institution spent three months drawing up the document in collaboration with secular and Islamist scholars.
The conservative Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most organised political force, and the ultraconservative Salafists, have won a majority in the country's first elected post-Mubarak parliament. Both call for an Islamic basis for the state, raising worries among Egypt's liberal and Christian groups that conservative religious teachings will dictate the shape of the new constitution. In theory, parliament is to be in charge of nominating who will draft the document.
Raising profile
The Al Azhar document is the latest in a series of moves by the institution to raise its profile as Islamists rise to political prominence — and to rehabilitate its own image after decades of being seen as a tool of Egypt's regime. Secular Egyptians, liberals and Christians, in turn, have welcomed its role, hoping it will give religious support for preserving broader democratic rights that they fear conservatives will try to limit. A previous document by Al Azhar, also backed by intellectuals, supported the Arab revolutions and the public's rights to democratic change.
"This document has a moral strength because it has the backing of Al Azhar scholars, the weight of Al Azhar institute and the critical role of intellectuals," said Nabeel Abdul Fattah, a senior researcher on religion at the state-sponsored Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. "The aim is to put forward a moderate Islamic vision" in the face of the rising power of the radical interpretation of Islam.
Scientific research
Al Azhar's Shaikh Ahmad Al Tayeb told reporters that the bill of rights, which preserves freedoms of worship, opinion, scientific research and art and creative expression, was drafted to be a basis for the country's new constitution, according to comments published by Egypt's state news agency.
He said Islamic rulings protect freedom of religion and guarantee equal citizenship rights, in a message of reassurance to Egypt's increasingly nervous Christian minorities.
Hassan Al Shafe'ei, a senior Al Azhar official, said the document has been passed to authorities to be considered in writing the constitution. It has been drafted in consultation with Islamic and Christian thinkers.
