After the enactment of the new Oratory Law, Mahmud Metwally, a simple school worker in the village of El-Idwa in the Minya governorate, lost his second job as the imam of his village’s mosque. He lost a source of income that used to help him support his eight-member family.

After the enactment of the new Oratory Law, Mahmud Metwally, a simple school worker in the village of El-Idwa in the Minya governorate, lost his second job as the imam of his village’s mosque. He lost a source of income that used to help him support his eight-member family.

“I used to earn L.E. 300 (nearly $50) for four sermons a month and some religious lessons in the mosque,” he said. “I inherited the position from my father and my grandfather who taught the Quran in the same mosque. But the new law imposes fines on preaching without a permit, and provides for requirements I do not meet, such as being registered at the Ministry of Awqaf.”

A new law

“The new Oratory Law issued by Interim President Adly Mansour before his resignation at the end of May states that it is not permissible for those who do not belong to the MoA to preach sermons in mosques,” says Sheikh Mohamed Abdurrazeq, MoA undersecretary for mosque affairs.

Abdurrazeq also explains that a number of delegates have been assigned to inspect mosques and enforce the law and that violators can be imprisoned for three to twelve months. Abdurrazeq insists that the main purpose of the law is to prevent members of the Islamist Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (IG), or those who practice politics under the guise of religion, from preaching sermons in mosques. Only graduates from al-Azhar University in Cario or those officially licensed can preach sermons. He argues that this matter is vital to protecting the state’s prestige and law enforcement powers.

Into force

The law was issued to put an end to the domination of Islamist currents like Salafism, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the IG. Hani Taghi, an MoA imam in the New Valley Governorate, says that this law has stopped many prominent preachers, including Salafists, Brotherhood members, and opponents of the current regime from preaching Friday sermons.

More than 400 mosques have been shut down in Cairo alone, on the pretext that Friday prayers can only be performed in mosques more than 80 square metres in size. Taghi says the MoA will ban Friday prayers in thousands of small mosques all over Egypt and the temporary contracts of 55,000 non-Azhari imams will be terminated.

Non-politicized preachers

Metwally says the sermons he used to give were very ordinary and had nothing to do with politics. “I sometimes explained Quranic verses which tackle certain issues like asceticism, faithfulness, commitment, piety, promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, honesty and good morals,” he said. “After Friday’s sermons were unified when Mukhtar Guma was appointed Minister of Awqaf, we started tackling specific topics, such as raising youth awareness, unity, and Islam’s call for peace – all serving the MoA’s goals.”

“During my sermons, I quote Quranic verses and the Sunna,” added Metwally. “For example, when I talk about lying, I start by talking about Prophet Muhammad’s morals, explain why people lie and how it goes against the prophet’s morals. I do not touch upon politics at all.”

Friday’s sermons, says Metwally, are not a function, but a mission, because imams are researchers and readers rather than memorizers of some words.

Government determination

The main group targeted by the law are the Salafist Call. “We will ban Salafist Call imams from preaching sermons or lessons at mosques,” says Abdurrazeq. The MoA stipulates that temporary imams, including Salafist Call imams, should be graduates from al-Azhar, a condition, he says, that was agreed under a synergy protocol previously signed with the Charity Preachers Association, which represents the Salafist Call in Alexandria.

“The MoA will not accept anybody interfering with one of its remits,” he says. “We will restore the platforms controlled by Salafists and other currents.” The MoA, he says, will make no political compromises. The Minister of Awqaf issued an announcement warning Salafists against repeating the Brotherhood’s mistake in confronting MoA imams and then controlled platforms, and stressed that he neither deceived Salafists nor intended to do so.

Take lessons from Khomeini

The Salafist Call and its political arm, the Al-Nour Party (NP), have severely criticized the law, warning that it would lead to secret sermons like those Khomeini preached in Iran when he incited the Iranian Revolution.

NP’s head Younes Makhioun says this law threatens the national security of Egypt because it tightens the grip on preaching that protects young people from the danger of un-Muslim thinking. Salafist Call associations, says Makhioun, have been helping meet the demand for imams for decades and have played a major role in protecting youth from perverse ideas. He points out that the MoA failed to enforce a similar law in 1996 and closed many small mosques because it was unable to provide them with imams. That made room for the Salafist Call, whose preachers acted as guards of moderate thought.

The NP’s deputy leader Nader Bakkar says limiting sermons and religious lessons to imams of al-Azhar and the MoA will not solve the problem of religious discourse in Egypt. Bakkar wants the MoA to find logical solutions to the crisis, instead of adopting measures that could plunge the whole of Egypt into secret preaching. This, warns Bakkar, could destroy the younger generation and distort their ideas.

Betting on MoA incapacity

Like many Salafist Call members, Metwally is betting that the MoA will fail to enforce the new law because it will be unable to supply enough imams. “The MoA isn’t even able to supply imams to its affiliated mosques, not to mention tens of thousands of mosques managed by civil associations,” he explained.

Abdurrazeq says there are 58,000 permanent MoA imams and 17,000 new al-Azhar graduates have been temporarily contracted – bringing the total number to 38,000 temps. He underlines that, according to the law, Friday prayers will only be performed in large mosques. If simple maths is applied, says Abdurrazeq, “we are able to manage the mosques.”

Monopoly of the religious discourse

The law has been denounced by many legal organizations in Egypt. “The law is one of nine unexpected presidential decrees issued before President Abdel Fattah Sisi took office,” said Amr Ezzat, researcher and director of the Freedom of Religion and Belief Programme at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. “It deepens the monopoly of the state and its religious institutions over the religious discourse, while previously this charge had always been laid at the door of Islamist movements.”

He suggests that the law is simply an extension of the MoA-regulating Law of 1959, which gave the MoA the right to administer mosques and monitor religious activities. The latest law, says Ezzat, has also increased sentences from a 1996 law against giving sermons without official licenses, which set imprisonment at no more than a month, and a fine of L.E. 100-300.

Ezzat believes the law continues the kind of policies the state has been adopting for decades in tightening its grip over the religious domain on the pretext of confronting radicalism. He also criticized the claim that this law helps separate state and religion, saying that although official religious institutions are not allowed to support any ruling party, they have always supported the state’s public policies – regardless of who is in power.