Let’s hope they’re saying the right prayer
Posted on 08/02/2014 3:58:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Across the country, many small houses of worship, who appoint their own imams and are often owned and controlled by wealthy families or groups such as Salafists (conservative Muslims who seek to emulate the lives of the Prophet Muhammad’s early followers), have been told to cease activity by the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi...
First to be hit were imams and preachers. Those not licensed by the government are banned from preaching. The main qualification for getting a licence is having studied at Al-Azhar mosque, a respected institution for the study of Islamic law. Anyone who defies the order risks a year’s imprisonment and fines of up to 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($7,000). In April the government said it had dismissed 12,000 imams and licensed 17,000 more to make up the shortfall. Across the country, all must give the same sermon on Fridays.
Officials have said that the aim is to clamp down on extremism, a valid concern in a region where it is flourishing. But the crackdown has a strong whiff of political expediency. The laws on mosques are plainly being used to squash dissent, which is strongest among Islamist groupings such as the Muslim Brotherhood, whose government was ousted in July 2013 by the army, then headed by Mr Sisi.
Tirades against Shia Muslims, for example, still go unchecked by the government, says Amr Ezzat, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent advocacy group in Cairo... Past presidents in Egypt have also tried to control Islam for their own ends, seeing unity among the country’s devout and overwhelmingly Sunni population as a key to stability. But small mosques were usually left alone so as not to provoke anger.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
Let’s hope they’re saying the right prayer
Rand Slams Congress for Funding Egypt's Generals: 'How Does Your Conscience Feel Now?'Sen. Rand Paul is hammering his fellow senators for keeping billions in financial aid flowing to Egypt's military -- even as Cairo's security forces massacre anti-government activists. [by "anti-government activists" is meant church-burning Christian-murdering jihadists][Posted on 08/15/2013 5:44:10 PM PDT by Hoodat]
Isn’t it touching that The Economist publishes concern troll agitprop of this kind, worrying about religious liberty — in a predominantly muzzie country with centuries of oppression of Coptic Christians?
Either their governments control the mosques, or the mosques control the governments.
Bump to the top
It’s about time that the extreme muzzies get a taste of their own medicine.
Morsi and the rest of his criminal organization should be executed in front of cheering crowds, televised.
Either the mosques are regulated by the gov’t, or there will be no gov’t, other than the range of the weapons controlled by any given mosque. Think of it as a Separation of Mosque and State.
First, is there a pro-Christian reporter to be found in the MSM. I suspect I’ll need only both hands to count them.
Second, the problem of Islamic extremism won’t go away, ever. Egypt could most effectively reduce it via free markets, but the generals need their cut.
Even that isn’t a perfect cure. The most devout Muslims are the deadliest.
Why not be safe an eliminate all mosques and imams?
Why not be safe and eliminate all mosques and imams?
When Mubarak ruled Egypt he did the same, Only government approved imams and prayer leaders were allowed to preach at the mosques, plus the secret police monitored what was said in mosques. That way, the radical Salafists and Muslim Brotherhood were kept at bay.
This is a turf war. Al-Sisi believes in establishing the Caliphate & the rule of Shariah law just like Morsi & the MB.
He’s just on a different schedule & hates it when ISIS & the mullahs in Teheran keep spilling the beans by waging apocalyptic warfare against “infidels”.
Hamas too is just another Islamic rival & Al-Sisi is content to let the Israelis do the dirty work of making them less of a thorn in his side.
Egypt’s not going to revert to its postcolonial secular past anytime soon. Let’s see how Coptic Christians are faring under Al-Sisi’s rule.
So?
Doesn’t gummint want to control EVERYTHING?
Civil society (and especially religion) outside the realm of politics and government, is a Western European invention. Its not the norm - it is the rare exception.
Muslim society is the exact opposite of that.
It's the nature of the beast.
Bump that!
I suspect that the drummer from Def Leppard could manage it.
Odumbo will support controlling all mosques. That way if anyone attacks or defaces any part of said mosque(s), it will be an affront on the U.S. gubmint, certainly we can’t have that happening.
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