Mosques now need ministry approval to collect donations
Donations may no longer be collected inside mosques without official permission from the Endowments Ministry, Minister Mokhtar Gomaa announced on Monday.
He also banned any individuals, NGOs or any other entities from collecting donations on a mosque’s behalf without official receipts from the ministry, the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.
Gomaa also announced that only Al-Azhar graduates who teach the Quran in mosques, both large and small, will have their license renewed and continue to be paid by the ministry.
The decisions come amid the ministry’s efforts to control the activities of the mosques and restrict any potential influence from the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group over religious discourse in Egypt.
In September, the ministry revoked 55,000 imams’ licenses and banned Friday sermons in mosques smaller than 80 meters, which put the ministry in a hot seat amid escalating tensions between the military-backed government and the deposed Islamist group.
Gomaa said in a press conference in September that the 55,000 imams were not graduates of Al-Azhar University, and so did “not fit with the mainstream moderate discourse of Al-Azhar."
Those imams — who led the Friday prayers and were paid by the ministry on a freelance basis — had certain political inclinations that incited violence and propagated certain political ideas, the minister claimed.
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