Cairo: Egypt’s religious authorities Tuesday vowed to take legal action against unlicensed preachers, days after a well-known Salafist cleric delivered a sermon allegedly by force in a government-run mosque.

“These demagogic acts are alien to religion, ethics and genuine Egyptian values,” the Ministry of Waqfs or Religious Endowments said in a statement.

“The ministry is keen to combat all forms of extremism and intellectual thuggery.”

The ministry was referring to an incident involving prominent ultraconservative Muslim cleric Hussain Yaqoub whom religious officials claimed to have barred last week a government-appointed preacher from delivering a Friday sermon and replaced him in a mosque in the city of Minya, some 245km south of Cairo.

The Ministry said it had filed a lawsuit against Yaqoub for illegal preaching, punishable by three months in prison.

Yaqoub made no comment on the incident. His followers have reacted with anger.

“Shaikh Yaqoub is a well-respected personality and people are highly interested in his sermons,” said Medhat Amer, a leading Salafist in Minya.

“He came to the city after an arrangement beforehand between him and the official in charge of the mosque,” Amer told the independent newspaper Al Youm Al Saba.

“Notices of his scheduled sermon had filled the streets of Minya before his arrival. The warm welcome he and his sermon received from the people are recorded. All this confirms that the claim he had forced his way to the pulpit is a sheer lie.”

Egyptian authorities have tightened their control of mosques nationwide since July last year when the military deposed president Mohammad Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood. The focus has since been on pro-Brotherhood mosques.

Religious officials say that this control is necessary as the predominantly Muslim country is waging an inexorable campaign against what they portray as a “war against terrorism and militancy”.

“We will not allow anyone to take the pulpit unless he is an imam appointed by the ministry,” said Jaber Tai’ah, a senior official in the Ministry of Waqfs. He added that almost all mosques have come under the control of the ministry.

“There are still some violations in small prayer areas, which will disappear as more than 20,000 preachers will start doing their job in a few days.”

While some Salafists such as the leading Al Nour Party backed the army’s removal of Mursi following massive protests against his one-year rule, others have criticised the ouster of the country’s first democratically elected president.

Following Mursi’s ouster, the military-backed authorities closed several religious TV stations allegedly for inciting violence.