Salafi leader seeks preaching permit for fifth time

Renowned Salafi leader Yasser al-Borhamy’s application for an Endowments Ministry permit to preach Friday sermons has shed light on the new regulations that attempt to give the government stricter control over the religious sphere. 

Borhamy, the vice president of the Salafi Dawah group, applied for the permit on Thursday, the privately owned Al-Shorouk newspaper reported on Friday.

The ministry is currently reviewing Borhamy’s application to see if he fulfills the criteria to be registered as a preacher, Gaber Taye — the head of the ministry’s committee responsible for collecting applications — told Al-Shorouk.

These criteria include being a graduate of Al-Azhar University and giving politically neutral sermons. If applicants fulfill the basic criteria, they must take and pass a state test.

In the past year, the Endowments Ministry rescinded thousands of imams' permits in order to re-assess them and to enforce new regulations and criteria for the permit. 

Borhamy told Al-Shorouk that this is the fifth time he applied for a permit, and that it should not be necessary for him to pass a test since he is a graduate of Al-Azhar, but that he would take the test regardless. 

A ministry source told Al-Shorouk that as an Al-Azhar graduate, Borhamy may indeed qualify for a permit, but it would immediately be revoked if his sermons addressed politics or were different from the framework set by the authorities. 

In a previous application, Borhamy had criticized problematic test questions on subjects like the rule for wearing the face veil, the rule on bank interests and the rule on prayer in mosques that house cemeteries.

"These are questions that have not been taught in Al-Azhar curricula and represent an infringement on opinion, on jurisprudence and Sharia and a violation of the law," he argued. 

Borhamy also pointed to the fact that the ministry’s selection committee includes people who test applicants for their political beliefs. Borhamy explained that while he welcomes banning politics from sermons, he believes that preachers should not be banned from relaying their political opinions outside mosques. 

Borhamy has often engaged in political issues in meetings and in television programs. The Salafi Dawah group is tied to the Nour Party and represents its religious base.

In a recent YouTube video, Borhamy decried calls for November 28 protests circulated by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Salafi groups. The Salafi Dawah and Nour Part have distanced themselves from other Islamist groups following the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi, and have chosen to remain in the political sphere by endorsing the current regime.

Earlier this year, the endowments minister issued a decree banning sermons in mosques smaller than 80 meters, and declared that only Endowments Ministry employees would have the right to give sermons. The ministry then retracted all permits previously granted to other preachers, and the new application system was put in place.

The decision came at the same time that the ministry began investigating a number of its employees, particularly those who preached, for radical politics and participation in Islamist protests. The ministry sent warnings to some preachers, while others were sacked, according to reports from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

In its ongoing attempts to contribute to the government’s stand against terrorism, this week the Endowments Ministry announced on its website that it would be organizing workshops for preachers on countering terrorism.

Amr Ezzat, who researches religious freedoms at EIPR, said that the ministry’s recent actions reflect a significant division within the ministry with regards to its personnel’s political allegiance. While some are staunch supporters of the current regime, some believe that many of the ministry’s moves are threatening to the “Islamist project.”