Egyptian mosque bill could pit government against top religious body
The Egyptian government presented a draft bill to parliament to change the conditions of the use of endowments, which raised the ire of Al-Azhar.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times; color: #101010; -webkit-text-stroke: #101010} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; font-kerning: none} span.s3 {font-kerning: none; color: #347ab7; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #347ab7} CAIRO — Cairo, known as the city of a thousand minarets, actually has over 3,000 mosques, and the country as a whole is home to over 100,000 Muslim houses of worship. Over 80,000 of these are controlled by the country’s Ministry of Religious Endowments, yet a recently published plan could pit the government’s strategy against the wishes of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s top religious authority.
Most of Egypt’s mosques were buildings donated by their owners to the state on condition that they would not be sold or leased but turned into mosques. This conditional donation is known as a “waqf,” or endowment.
