Ministry officials seek arrest powers to protect mosques

The Ministry of Endowments plans to grant judicial arrest powers to its officials and inspectors to protect mosques from “non-specialized” preachers, the ministry said in an official statement on Monday.

The plans were made in a meeting between Endowments Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa and Minister of Justice Mahfouz Saber, during which Gomaa handed Saber a list of inspectors to be given arrest powers.

The powers, if granted, would facilitate the arrest of any religious preachers who are not officially authorized by the ministry to give Friday sermons.

Gomaa said that the decision is a step towards “governing” mosques, by insuring their protection from “infiltrators and unauthorized preachers,” in reference to preachers from the ousted Muslim Brotherhood group, who have been accused of using the mosque as a means of political mobilization and to garner support.

The decision follows a similar call last year by the ministry to curb the influence of the banned Islamist organization by revoking the licenses of 55,000 imams and banning Friday sermons in mosques smaller than 80 square meters.

The ministry is working very hard to place all mosques owned by Brotherhood and Salafi religious institutions under its jurisdiction. It also decided to unify the topic of Friday sermons across the country, and to appoint imams, especially in major and central mosques, as well as sack those known to have affiliations with the Brotherhood or other groups associated with political Islam.

These decisions by the ministry prompted researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) Amr Ezzat to coin the term “The State of the Imam,” in reference to the Egyptian state’s monopoly on running the religious sphere in modern history, including the Islamic religion.