The military-installed regime in Egypt is determined to crush all forms of dissent. Its recent victims are students, even those at Al-Azhar University. Riot police have stormed the premises and attacked and injured scores of students. The protests continue and show no sign of dying down despite the brutal crackdown.
Shaykh el-Qaradawi continues to grab headlines. His latest announcement about resigning from the advisory Committee of Ulama at Al-Azhar has been welcomed by most sincere Muslims. He resigned because he accused Al-Azhar and its shaykh of failing to condemn the military coup and its massacres of the Egyptian people. Muslims, however, have questioned el-Qaradawi's sectarian outbursts and his acceptance of patronage of the Qatari amir.
This once venerable institution has been reduced to a shell and its head doing the bidding of the corrupt rulers. It is a sad reflection to how far the Ummah has fallen.
A spate of recent events highlights the urgency with which the Americans are trying to reshape Islam in their own image and interests. Since mid-August, for example, reports in several Egyptian newspapers have told of dozens of mosque imams and khateebs being sent to America secretly in what are called "cultural exchanges".
The world’s probably most obsequious elite is still celebrating the Egyptian parliament’s nomination of president Husni Mubarak for a fourth term in office on June 2, with ‘representatives of Egyptian society’ - from Sheikh-ul-Azhar and the Coptic patriarch, to chairpersons of feminist organisations - trekking to the presidential palace to declare their mabaya’ah for the ‘national hero’.
The new Shaikh of Al-Azhar in Egypt, Dr Muhammad Sid Tantawi, who is better known for his trendy opinions on social issues than for firing off pointed fatwas on the hot political issues of the day, has reacted spiritedly to the challenge of Israeli rabbis, who invited him to condemn ‘suicide’ attacks on Israeli targets...
