Conflict and Cooperation Between the State and Religious Institutions in Contemporary Egypt

Abstract

Al-Azhar, traditionally Egypt's most respected and influential center for Islamic study, adopted an increasingly bold platform opposing Egyptian government policy throughout the mid-1990s. Al-Azhar defied government policy on a variety of sensitive issues, including population control, the practice of clitoridectomy, and censorship rights. Moreover, al-Azhar directly challenged the government in high-profile forums such as the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in September of 1994. This open opposition was remarkable in light of the tremendous capacity that the Egyptian government has shown in the past to manipulate and control al-Azhar. Over the past century, and particularly since the 1952 Free Officers' coup, the Egyptian government virtually incorporated al-Azhar as an arm of the state through purges and control over Azhar finances, and by gaining the power to appoint al-Azhar's key leadership. Presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Husni Mubarak all benefited from this dominance over al-Azhar by securing fatwas legitimating their policies. Given this overwhelming leverage, what can explain al-Azhar's increased opposition to the government throughout the mid-1990s?

The bodily threat of miracles: Security, sacramentality, and the Egyptian politics of public order

“…For instance, the British colonial authorities banned moulids (saints' festivals) as "classic occasions for 'mob' formation, 'trouble' and 'disorder'" (Gilsenan 2000:611), and Egyptian police during the Mubarak regime aimed to "civilize" moulids by instituting public order through bodily habits and spatial organization ( Schielke 2008). As part of its larger ambition to regulate and control the religious lives of its citizens, the Egyptian state has strategically cemented alliances with religious institutions of Al-Azhar and the Coptic Orthodox Church "in service of the state" (Moustafa 2000;Tadros 2009). Such acts of state-initiated regulation and reform have thoroughly transformed, for example, Islamic forms and pedagogical practices of knowledge (Starrett 1998), which consequently intersect and compete with long-standing discursive traditions of virtue and ethical discipline (Agrama 2010a;Hirschkind 2006).…”

The Limits of the State: Student Protest in Egypt, Iraq and Turkey, 1948–63

“…Bureaucrats and even top decisionmakers are, after all, members of the societies they govern. 68 Moreover, more often than not, the state's control over society is limited.…”

The Islamist Trend in Egyptian Law

“…Nasser continued this assault in 1952 by placing all waqf land (a full 12% of all arable land) under the control of the new Wizarat al-Awqaf (Ministry of Endowments). Finally, the 1961 nationalization of al-Azhar formally reorganized the university and put it under direct government administration (Moustafa 2000). Under state domination, the shape of legal education changed dramatically within al-Azhar.…”