Ancient mosque caught in Egypt's political, religious crosscurrents
Egypt's ancient al-Azhar mosque has been an unrivaled touchstone of Islamic thinking, guiding the devout and educating millions through its distinguished university and education system. Now there is evidence that a more rigid school of Islam is taking hold there, to match the increasingly doctrinaire mood of the Egyptian people.
KHALED DESOUKI / AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Worshippers cheer Feb. 24 for Ismail Haniyeh, at top, prime minister of Hamas-run Gaza, as he delivers a speech after Friday prayers in the al-Azhar mosque in Cairo
Originally published Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 6:01 AM
By Griff Witte
The Washington Post
CAIRO — They came by the thousands, pouring through the ancient stone archways and into the gleaming white marble courtyard of al-Azhar mosque. The faithful had come to pray, to hear a thundering sermon from a leader of Hamas and to witness a rebirth.
Co-opted for decades by irreligious and autocratic Egyptian governments, al-Azhar was retaking its rightful place as the world's leading voice of Sunni Islam, worshippers said. The presence of a once-banned Hamas preacher willing to speak incendiary truths was proof that the millennium-old mosque and university that bear the al-Azhar name had finally been set free.
"Before, al-Azhar was covered by dust," said Yasser Abdel Monen, 32, beaming in the shadow of towering minarets. "Now we have removed the dust to show what it is truly made of."
But to others, that Friday sermon late last month was proof of something more ominous: the perverse outcome of a revolution built on a thirst for freedom but overtaken by a hunger for hard-line religious dogma.
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