Al Azhar president sacked over mass poisoning

Cairo: Egypt’s top Muslim cleric Ahmad Al Tayyeb Wednesday sacked president of the religious Al Azhar University Osama Al Abd under massive public pressure, two days after more than 500 students had suffered food poisoning.

The decision was made at a crisis meeting of the Higher Al Azhar Council chaired by Al Tayyeb that oversees Al Azhar University.

The council said a new president would be elected for the first time in the history of the university. Several state-run universities in Egypt have picked their presidents and administrative leaders through elections in the past two years, dropping the decades-old appointment policy.

As the meeting was under way, thousands of students were protesting outside Al Tayyeb’s office in Cairo chanting slogans against him. Similar protests were held in other areas of Egypt.

Al Tayyeb later in the day met with a delegation representing the students.

He also fired the manager and catering supervisor at the university’s hostel.

Public prosecutor Talaat Abdullah has ordered an investigation into the incident, blamed on contaminated food eaten by the students at the university hostel.

The mostly secular opposition has claimed that the ruling Muslim Brotherhood is taking advantage of the incident to topple Al Tayyeb, a moderate cleric appointed in the era of the former president Husni Mubarak. Some detractors even accused the Brotherhood of standing behind the incident.

The Brotherhood, from which President Mohammad Mursi hails, has dismissed the accusation as “nonsense”.

“Those accusing the Brotherhood of being behind the poisoning of Al Azhar students allegedly to remove Al Azhar Shaikh are seeking to trigger unethical battles and drive a wedge between the Brotherhood and Shaikh Al Tayyeb,” said Ahmed Aref, the group’s spokesman.

He added that under a new constitution, approved in a public vote last year, Al Azhar Shaikh cannot be sacked.