Egypt moves to stem fundamentalism by appropriating private mosques
May 4, 1996
Web posted at: 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 GMT)From Correspondent Gayle Young
CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- When the call to prayer sounds in Egypt, the majority of the faithful head to any one of thousands of private mosques tucked into storefronts and even private homes. In Egypt, just about anyone could set up a mosque and preach their interpretation of the Koran.
That is ... until now. The Egyptian government has announced it will take control of the country's estimated 60,000 private mosques by the year 2000.
Publicly, government officials say they are simply enforcing a law that dates from 1960. Off camera, they voice concerns that some private mosques have become breeding grounds for Islamic extremism.
At the same time, Egypt has moved to exert a more moderate influence over Cairo's Al-Azhar University, the premier religious institution in the Islamic world.
Al-Azhar had been under the sway of a conservative sheikh who recently died. As his replacement, Egypt named Said Tantawi, a moderate whose views on religious tolerance, birth control and women's rights are hailed by intellectuals.
"He looks at modern problems and comes up with a new way of thinking," said constitutional lawyer Kamal Abel Magd. "that is in line with the principles of the Koran."
Under the government's plan for the private mosques, imams of all newly appropriated mosques will attend state-run religious indoctrination courses.
But critics say the government is failing to root out what they perceive to be the real cause of Islamic extremism -- poverty and frustration.
"The only measure that can solve the problems are those that take into account culture and those that create financial returns," said Islamic author Mohamed Omara.
Still unknown is the response of the people to praying in state-run mosques. The appropriation of the mosques will be a daunting bureaucratic task in a country where people literally pray in the streets.
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