Macron and Islam: What is the truth about the difference in...

Recent statements by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, on Islam and Muslims have sparked widespread reactions on social media.

Al-Tayyib tweeted, commenting on the association of the Muslim name with terrorism, saying: “This saying was deceived and swallowed up by many, even among the Muslims themselves … The truth is that Muslims are victims of double standards.”

Tweeters considered that what the Sheikh of Al-Azhar said was considered a response to a recent video recording of a previous television interview with the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawky Allam, which sparked controversy and some interpreted it as “politicized.”

Allam said in the interview that “the number of Europeans who are joining ISIS is increasing, reaching nearly half of the Muslims who live there from the second and third generations.”

He also added, “Most of the centers of Islamic organizations around the world have different Brotherhood and non-Brotherhood agendas that are heavily funded and carry different discourses that place Islam in a negative light.”

But what many did not notice was that the Egyptian Dar al-Iftaa published the day before its intention to advance the widespread interview, and the study that the Mufti cited:

The statements of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, and before him, the Mufti of Egypt, while the statements of French President Emmanuel Macron about Islam, and what he described as the “deep crisis” that Muslims are going through, are still causing controversy in Arab and Islamic circles on the political and social levels.

In Egypt, the opinions of social media users differed.

The team criticized the statements of the Egyptian Dar Al Iftaa, accusing it of adopting a political agenda for the Egyptian government towards its opponents, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

Others saw Al-Azhar’s statements as being “oblivious to the truth,” adding that it is the duty of every Muslim to “confront the reality of extremism that the religion of Islam suffers from.”

The Egyptian Dar Al Iftaa remains the subject of much political controversy. It was previously accused of taking political positions “in line with the policies of the Egyptian regime.”

There is a combination of factors that bloggers saw as “increasing” the rift between the two bodies.

The most recent of these was the draft law organizing the Egyptian Dar al-Ifta, which the Egyptian parliament had planned to discuss in August, before al-Azhar objected, which it considered tantamount to creating a “parallel entity” for the Al-Azhar institution that detracts from its established role under the constitution.

On the other hand, the Egyptian government says that Dar Al Iftaa is originally an independent body, but some confuse the two institutions of Al-Azhar and Dar Al Ifta, because the Mufti is one of the scholars of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif.