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An insight into the role of the Egyptian government in mosque building, focusing on the Ministry of Endowments and its jurisdiction, the evolution of mosques in Muslim society, and the government's efforts to combat extremism. The document also discusses the financing of mosques, the relationship between the state and imams, and the conditions for mosque building.
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Following Islamic tradition, the mosque is not only a place for worship, but also a place for culture and education, for the provision of health services and in general, for social support and solidarity. (Ministry of Waqfs , 1982)
The Legal framework of Mosque building and Muslim religious affairs in Egypt: towards a strengthening of State control
By:
Damas Addeh and Sayida Fuad
Supervised and edited by Cornelis Hulsman
January 15, 2011
Endowments ( Awqaf ) Hamdi Zaqzuq, these conditions have apparently been respected in an informal way before their official implementation. This raises interesting questions: why and how were these conditions met before being codified and ratified by the People’s Assembly?
Studying the mosque building process and its related legal issues is part of the larger issue of religious tensions in Egypt. Indeed, the construction of places of worship, a process involving multiple stakes and interests, has occasionally resulted in confrontational relations between the religious minority and majority in Egypt.
In November 1972, the government appointed a committee tasked to investigate the escalation of tensions between Copts and Muslims in the period between 1970-1972.^4 The committee’s report, which was submitted to the People’s Assembly and to then-president Anwar al-Sadat, questions the Interior Ministry’s regulations issued in 1934^5 and their original source, the 1856 Ottoman legislative act. The latter stipulates the obligation for non-Muslims to obtain a permission from the authorities in order to be able to build places of worship. It was clear to the Committee that “one of the main causes”^6 of interreligious tensions and clashes was the “absence of a simple
should the mosque be built.
_5. Mosques are not permitted to be built under residential buildings.
(^4) See Jacques Jomier : UN Rapport sur Quelques Heurts entre Coptes et Musulmans d’Egypte, November 1972, Report by Dr. Jamāl al-cUtayfī on the al- Khankah sectarian events, AWR, 2009, week 13, art. 2, http://arabwestreport.info/year-2009/week-13/2-report-dr-jam257l-al-cutayf299-al-khankah- sectarian-events (^5) The 1934 Interior Ministry’s regulations document states ten conditions that have to be met in order to obtain said presidential decree. 6 See Jacques Jomier: L’Islam Vecu en Egypte : 1945-1975. Paris : Librairie philosophique J. Vrin. 1994.
procedure”^7 followed by the government to authorize the building of a church. Indeed, the current procedure is long and complex and makes it relatively difficult to obtain a license to build a church, which does not seem to be the case for mosque building.^8
More than three decades later, the stakes surrounding the construction of a worship place remain high. Indeed, a paper written for AWR^9 examined the conflicts resulting from the construction of a church in the village of Izbet Bushra in Upper Egypt in 2009. The Christian inhabitants of the village obtained permission to build a factory. In reality however, they designed the building to become a church and a residence for its priest. In the course of its construction, the Muslim community reacted by starting to erect a second village mosque, also without authorization, in front of the church. After clashes took place, the Christians were granted permission to build the church in another location, distant from the mosque, whereas the latter obtained a building license and the right to remain in the same spot.
Even though the primary purpose of the current study is not to understand Coptic-Muslim tensions, it remains an important topic for further research. The 1972 committee investigation and the Izbet Bushra case study both show the important stakes surrounding the construction of places of worship and raise legal questions on the process leading to their construction. Examining the current legal frame of mosque building will enable us to understand the foundational and contextual issues that often remain obscure when considering particular cases such as Izbet Bushra.
In 2008, Arab-West Report issued a comprehensive report^10 on church building in Egypt, which was the first known systematic work on this topic. The study demonstrates that apart from Egyptian legislation, there are many other factors that come into play in the church building
(^7) Ibid. (^8) Christian Fastenrath and Corin Kazanjian: Important Factors for Church Building in Egypt, published by AWR 2008, Week 47, Article 5, Christian Fastenrath and Corin Kazanjian: Important Factors for Church Building in Egypt, published by AWR 2008, Week 47, Article 5, Arab-West Papers no. 4, http://www.arabwestreport.info/important-factors-church-building-egypt 9 See Jayson Casper: Izbet Bushra: Recording the Sources and Suggesting Reconciliation Following a Conflict over Church Building, published by AWR 2010, Week 2 Article 3. 10 See Christian Fastenrath and Corin Kazanjian: Important Factors for Church Building in Egypt, published by AWR 2008, Week 47, Article 5.
conclusion, we will summarize the important points discussed throughout this paper and suggest further related research questions.
II. Historical overview
It is important to remember that the mosque is not merely a provider of religious services. Consequently, we should avoid using a reductionist approach. Since the early days of Islam, mosques have been offering services and activities well beyond the religious realm. Their functions have been extended as they became centers of social and cultural activities, as well as spaces for political debate. These houses of prayer have thus encompassed multi-disciplinary activities. This extension of the mosque’s role and contribution to the development of the social and economic sectors has been carried out in accordance with the principle and evolution of the waqf (Islamic charitable endowment). Therefore, it is necessary to look at the historical background of the waqf and how for centuries it shaped the mosque’s social, political, and economic role, as well as its relation with the state in order to understand the complex current legal issues pertaining to mosque building today.
Throughout the history of Islam, many scholars have studied waqf and generated different definitions of the concept. For the purpose of the present paper, we have decided to use Hisham Dafterdar’s definition because it most simply illustrates this complex institution. According to Dafterdar, waqf refers to “assets that are donated, bequeathed, or purchased for the purpose of being held in perpetual trust as ongoing charity ( sadaka jariya ) or for a general or specific cause that Islam regards as socially beneficial.”^11
The institution of waqf is based on the principle of voluntary donations and is, therefore, not obligatory. As one of the main sources of financing Islam’s welfare system, waqf helps provide social services such as education, healthcare, and roads. This Islamic socio-economic model based on the redistribution of resources has been applied for centuries and implemented across
(^11) See Hisham Dafterdar: Towards Effective Legal Regulations and Enabling Environment for Awqaf, Islamic Business Researches Center. Available at: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://kantakji.com/&langpair=ar|en&hl=en&ie=UTF
the Islamic world. In fact, institutions such as mosques, Qur’anic schools, and hospitals have historically been built and financed by the waqf.^12 Because of its distinctive rules and regulations and given its economic independence vis-à-vis the state, this non-profit institution (and indirectly the mosque from which it was derived) remained out of the rulers’ oversight and out of any regulated governmental environment. In reality, despite his official status of administrator, the ruler did not have full control over the economic and legal aspects of the mosque due to the voluntary donation system. In other words, the income received from private donors turned a mosque into an economically independent institution, which practically limited the government’s intervention in its affairs. Furthermore, the waqif (the founder of the waqf ) is generally regarded as the owner of the mosque because of his contribution. This legal status allows the waqf to decide on the type of management he wants to employ.^13 Therefore, being financially independent and not submitted to the state’s legal control, mosques effectively had an operational space in which the state did not interfere. This independence allowed religious leaders to take a position on certain issues independently of that of the ruling class. This state of affairs lasted for centuries before the state decided to finally put the institution of the waqf (and by extension the mosques) under its supervision.
The principle of “perpetuity of waqf ” allowed Islamic non-profit entities to accumulate important wealth through time. For example, a survey of land in Egypt dated from 1812 -1813 showed that 600,000 feddan^14 out of a total of 2.5 million feddan were considered waqf property.^15 It became clear for governments that the waqf amounted to a significant contribution to the socio-economic activities of their respective countries and they therefore considered it a national resource. In the first half of the 19th century, various interests and issues linked to waqf incited the ruling class of Muhammad Ali Pasha to undertake measures to put the waqf under state jurisdiction. This was carried out in the framework of reforms to modernize Egypt. In order to further carry out his reformist aims, Muhammad Ali Pasha gradually moved waqf assets under state control. Ali
(^12) See Daniela Pioppi: From Religious Charity to the Welfare State and Back. The Case of Islamic Endowments and Revival in Egypt, EUI Working Paper RSCAS. No. 2004/34. 2004. Available at:http://www.eui.eu/RSCAS/WP- Texts/04_34.pdf 13 14 Towards effective legal regulations and enabling environment for^ Awqaf. 15 A unit of land measurement equal to 0.95 acres. See Monzer Kahf: Waqf: A Quick Overview, available at: http://monzer.kahf.com/papers/english/WAQF_A_QUICK_OVERVIEW.pdf
for the state to show strategic interest in Islam after the secular Nasser years. Indeed, Sadat introduced amendments of the constitution (1980) and Islam was promulgated as the state religion and the principles of sharia as the primary source of legislation.^18 In addition, Sadat’s decision to free members of the Muslim Brotherhood who were imprisoned under Nasser was a way to legitimize his new policy. This move to give the religious sector more freedom and importance resulted in the emergence of Islamism and eventually led to the “loss of the Egyptian State’s monopoly on ideology, as well as the dropping of the strategy of containing religion on which his predecessor had relied.”^19 This reality eventually resulted in Sadat’s assassination in 1981 by a member of Islamic Jihad.
Hosni Mubarak, who became the president after the assassination of Sadat, continued to apply reforms aimed at the revitalization of the religious charity sector. However, his reforms were characterized by a double approach: a strengthening of the Ministry of Endowments, which resulted in tighter control of charitable institutions and an extension of the their functions. As a result, the role of mosques was transformed, as they once again became providers of social services in the education, health, and cultural sectors, only this time under the state’s control.^20 Additionally, in its effort to combat extremism, the Mubarak government has been carrying on with the process of annexing private mosques ( ahli ).^21 In order to succeed in these reform projects, the power of the Ministry of Endowments has been strengthened. This reconsideration of the institution of waqf does not mean that the latter has fully recovered the role that it had earlier. Neither should it be viewed as the state’s retreat from the religious sector. Of course, under Mubarak, mosques depended on civil society for donations. However, this self-financing has not impeded the state’s strengthening of oversight on mosques. Therefore, the development of state or annexed mosques is now tightly supervised by the state. The waqf is operating under parameters imposed by the state. The state trains, appoints, and pays imams. It also dictates their discourse and rhetoric.
(^18) See Article 2 of The Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt. (^19) See Peter E Makari: Conflict and Cooperation: Christian-Muslim Relations in Contemporary Egypt. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. 2007. 20 See Daniela Pioppi: From Religious Charity to the Welfare State and Back. The Case of Islamic Endowments and Revival in Egypt, EUI Working Paper RSCAS. No. 2004/34. 2004. Available at: http://www.eui.eu/RSCAS/WP- Texts/04_34.pdf 21 The different types of mosques will be described in the coming section.
In brief, the state’s contemporary presence in the religious sector is wide, including its strengthening of the administrative power of the Ministry of Endowments, its will to annex mosques across the nation, and its issuing of the ten conditions for mosque building. The religious charity sector (and by extension the mosque and its construction) and the state are now tightly linked. We elaborate on this link in Chapter 6, in which we focus on the Ministry of Endowments. Before that, we will examine the different types of mosques and their legal statuses in an effort to present a holistic view of the Islamic house of prayers.
III. Different types of mosques and the differences in their legal status
The definition of “mosque” in the English language is not nuanced and does not reflect the fact that there are different types of mosques, each with their own feature and legal status. The jami’a , considered as the main mosque, is a worship place that, in addition to offering the five daily prayers, has the right to provide the Friday prayer, which is led by an imam , or leader of the mosque. In addition, the jami’a has an educational role, as it provides teachings of the Qur’an, as well as cultural and social activities. From a legal standpoint, the government licenses the Jami’a ; therefore it is under the supervision of the Ministry of Endowments ( Awqaf ). Despite the fact that the jami’a mosques remain under the regulation of the awqaf , the social activities they provide are under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Solidarity. The masjid (usually smaller than the jami’a ) also offers the five daily prayers (but in fact is not allowed to offer the Friday prayer which in practice it does) and is also licensed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Endowments. On the other hand, the zawiya are small, private worship places that are generally located under buildings. According to Foaad Abd El Azeem^22 , their width cannot exceed 100 meters. The zawiyas are difficult to legally define because it is difficult for the government to supervise them. One of their characteristics is that they are open for all prayers except the Friday prayer, as they lack an established imam (though some find an imam and thus perform also the Friday’s prayers). According to statistics provided by Dr. Salim Abdul Jalil, the
(^22) In an interview conducted by AWR on April 7, 2010.
of the ministry. Moreover, in order to ensure the security of the donated amount, the Ministry of Endowments created a special account at the Central Bank, in which the donations are to be deposited.^25 It is noteworthy that, even though the Ministry of Endowments accepts donations destined to itself and that it created and presides a committee responsible for the building of mosques, this ministry still must use the money according to the interests of the donor. The Ministerial Decree 16/1982 is, in a way, a continuation of Ministerial Decree 140/1973, which was adopted almost 10 years earlier. Indeed, both decrees were written in the same spirit and have the same objective: to facilitate the spread of true Islam among Muslims through donations. Decree 16/1982 Article 2 and Decree 140/1973 Article 1 also refer to “surplus account funds of the implantation of the conditions of the donors” as an account established by the Ministry of Endowments for the following purposes stipulated in Art. 2: Article two: It shall allocate this account for the affairs of the spread of Islamic Dac^ wah and a charity for the poor, specifically for the following matters:
(i) Constructing mosques, restoring existing mosques, developing mosque services, and performing religious rites. (ii) Organising Islamic missions abroad to spread the Islamic Dac^ wah (iii) Preparing religious researchers and studies by the Ministry of Endowments and the associations working on the spread of Islamic Da c^ wah and the revival of the Islamic Heritage. (iv) Teaching the Holy Qur’an, printing and distributing it. (v) Helping associations who are working on the spread of Islamic Dac^ wah at home and abroad. (vi) Giving rewards to those who perform excellent work in the field of Islamic Dac^ wah at home and abroad, whether from the Ministry`s staff or others.
The management of expenses is administered by a governmental committee as stipulated in Article 3 of the Decree, headed by the Minister of Al-Awqaf and composed of : i. The Deputy of Al-Awqaf Minister for Dac^ wah Affairs. ii. The Deputy of Al-Awqaf Minister for the Financial and Administrative Affairs. iii. The Deputy of Al-Awqaf for Charity Affairs. iv. The General Director of Dac^ wah. v. The General Director of the Financial and Administrative Affairs. vi. The Director of the Budget Administration.
(^25) See Article 2 of the Ministerial Decree 16/1982.
With the issuance of decrees 16/1982 and 140/1973, the government confirms its authority over donations and the construction of mosques financed by these types of voluntary subsidies. By regulating the voluntary donations through said decrees, the government asserts its authority over an ancient Islamic institution: the waqf. Moreover, the government attempts, through these legal instruments, to limit the construction of unlicensed mosques. These have been subject to governmental annexation, an operation that started in the 1990’s.
The financing can also come from abroad. For example, Islamic foundations in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, as well as the Saudi government are known for financing mosque building in countries around the world, with Egypt being one of the recipient countries.^26
Whereas private donations and foreign agencies are indisputable sources of funding for mosque building, the government’s financial implication seems somewhat unclear, as there is no consensus among the experts on this topic who have been interviewed by our team. For instance, Dr. Ahmad al-Sayih, a prolific writer on theological issues and former dean at the faculty of da’wah at the Azhar, asserts that, according to Egyptian law, the state should not finance mosque building and private donations can be the only sources of financing].^27 Additionally, according to Dr. Salim Abdul Jalil, Deputy Minister of Al-Awqaf for Da’awa , the Ministry of Endowments does not manage any Egyptian Islamic foundation (NGO) that is in charge of financing the construction of mosques. Dr. Abdul Jalil asserts that the Ministry of Endowments is a governmental institution that has no relation to civil society.^28
However, in some cases, the government can have an advisory function. For example, according to Mr. Ragab Abdel Mounsief, Chairman of the Central Administration of the Curriculum and the Prophetic Sunnah , and Mr. Hamdi Mahmoud Al-Dawi, General Director of the Manuscripts and the Heritage Books, the Ministry of Endowments will first encourage private donors to give priority to the construction of schools and hospitals rather than mosques, given the number of
(^26) See Saudi Government Paper: Billions Spent by Saudi Royal Family to Spread Islam to Every Corner of the Earth. MEMRI. March 2002. Available at: http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/638.htm 27 28 In an interview conducted with AWR on March 23, 2010. In an interview conducted with AWR on April 19, 2010.
governmental mosques. Funds for the construction of mosques from the first category come directly from the Ministry of Endowments, while the financing for the second category of mosques is private, donated by religious and charitable organizations. Mr Ragab Abdel Mounsief and Mr. Hamdi Mahmoud calculate that approximately 90% of mosques are funded by “self- financing” rather than by the government.^34 Whereas the government’s financial involvement in mosque building does not seem very clear, the Ministry of Endowments does provide direct funding for the operating costs of mosques, such as electricity, water, and the salaries of the imam , preachers, and Islamic studies teachers. Thus, the government affirms its role in the running of mosques and further confirms its authority over them.
V. IMAMS
As the leader of the mosque, the imam^35 is responsible for spreading Islamic teachings and leading Muslim religious rituals. Considering his central role in Islam, an imam must be highly qualified and possess a thorough knowledge of the Qur’an and Muslim religious practices. In his work Research on the Function of the Mosque in Contemporary Society , Abdullah Abdul Khalek Al-Mishad highlights the importance of the preacher’s qualifications. Considering that the function requires that he also be qualified as a preacher, an imam should satisfy a series of requirements. According to Al-Mishad, a preacher (and an imam , by extension) must:
(^34) From an interview conducted with AWR on April 15, 2010. (^35) His leadership exists only during prayer and ends with end of the performance. People have the right to choose five different imams for the five prayers every day. The fact that they may have the same imam for Friday prayers every week should be attributed to administrative and not religious considerations and often he is a member and not head of the administration council.
various types of people that make the society from one side. On the other hand, he is expected to be an encyclopaedia in Islamic knowledge.
The state’s authority in terms of assigning the imams is reasserted in 1973 through yet another decree. In fact, Ministerial Decree 152/1973 is yet another legal effort by the state to place the imams under its control and thus confirms its oversight over its employees. Article 1 of the decree 152/1973 reads as follows:
(^36) See Abdullah Abdul Khaleck Al-Mishad, Research on the Function of the Mosque in Contemporary Society, from the Fifth Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research at al-Azhar, Government Printing Offices, 1970. 37 38 Article 1 of the Ministerial Decree 97/1962. Article 4 of the Ministerial Decree 97/1962.
Endowments took charge of their training, yet another strategy to ensure that these religious leaders remain under the state’s oversight.
In order to better manage the religious affairs of the Muslim community, the state trains Egypt’s imams in accordance with Sunnī doctrine, which Al-Awqaf , Al-Azhar and Dar Al-Ifta^42 all adhere to. These institutions advocate for a “genuine Islam” which is to be taught in accordance with the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The imam must, therefore, act in agreement with values such as tolerance, co-existence, and citizenship. According to the Director of the Institute for the Preparation of Preachers at Al-Nour Mosque, to facilitate the training of imams, Al-Awqaf has set up the following imam training institutes that belong to and are managed by the Ministry of Endowments: Preparation of Preachers Institutes and Islamic Cultural Centers. 43 The former are Islamic Institutes responsible for training graduates from Al-Azhar University who want to become official imams. The latter are Islamic educational centers providing religious education for the public.^44 In other words, graduates from any university can study Islamic subjects (religious rites, Fiqh , Sharia , Sunnah and Qur'an , etc.) at any one of these centers for two years if they are able to meet the following three conditions: (1) The applicants must be graduates from higher education programs. (2) They have to register to take exams organized by Al-Awqaf by presenting copies of their official documents (ID, certification of birth, and certification of graduation). (3) To pass these exams successfully, they must master at least five parts of the Qur'an (there are thirty parts in total).^45
Despite the existence of these educational institutions, in proportion to the number of mosques, there is currently an important deficit in imams who are recognized by the Egyptian State and adequately trained to give the sermon and lead the Friday prayer. Indeed, according to Dr. Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzuq, the Minister of Waqf , there are 47,258 registered imams in Egypt serving approximately 104,000 mosques. These numbers reflect a serious problem. Without an
(^42) Al-Azhar affiliated, responsible for issuing fatwas. (^43) From an interview conducted with AWR on April 26, 2010. The official declined to be identified by name. (^44) There are 21 of these centers throughout Egypt. (^45) See Majahed Subhi: The Weakness of Azhar Graduates and the Future of Dawa in Egypt, (translated from Arabic). Rose al-Yusuf , April 2, 2010, p. 10.
imam , a mosque cannot open for the Friday prayer.^46 A series of factors explain this deficit. For instance, Shaykh Salim Abdul Jalil explains that many students are unable to pass the ministry’s exams. According to Shaykh Abdul Jalil, Al-Awqaf sets very high standards in selecting the best candidates for the Islamic Dac^ wah : i. Learning the Holy Qur'an with full knowledge of its meanings. ii. Learning Sunnah with full knowledge of the sciences of Hadith. iii. Learning Al-Fiqh issues with full knowledge of the Fiqh of worship and of Islamic history and the Prophetic Sunnah , in addition to the personal qualified features for the tasks of Dac^ wah.^47
The state has established a regulated process through which a candidate must pass in order to become an imam. Article 2 of the Ministerial Decree 97/1962 stipulates that: The candidates for the jobs of imam…shall be qualified according to the conditions issued in the Law of State officers and shall have passed the competition successfully conducted under the supervision of the Civil Service Bureau for this purpose in accordance with the ministry.^48
In order to address the deficit in the number of preachers, the Ministry of Endowments has set up a reward system. The latter consists of giving a financial reward to qualified people – retired professors, teachers of the Islamic religion at schools, teachers of Al-Azhar, retired scholars, etc.
