At the tipping point? al-Azhar’s growing crisis of moral authority

Journal article

Routinely required to lend religious legitimacy to contentious state policies, al-Azhar's moral authority has been under pressure since its nationalization in 1961. This article outlines how Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib's recent alliance with President ʿAbd al-Fattah al-Sisi has, however, exposed al-Azhar's moral authority to unprecedented risks. This is for three reasons. First, the tactics used by al-Sisi's government to quell the Muslim Brotherhood have been more extreme than those used by previous regimes. Second, the al-Azhari establishment's defence of these violent tactics has been more unqualified than in the past. Third, current state-led reforms of al-Azhar's curriculum are more controversial than prior efforts along these lines. As I show, these recent developments are not a complete break from the past; rather, they are a natural outcome of incremental shifts that have been occurring within al-Azhar since its nationalization over fifty years ago.

Authors: Bano, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: International Journal of Middle East Studies
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 715-734
• Publication date: 2018-11-28
• Acceptance date: 2017-07-26
• DOI: 10.1017/S0020743818000867
• EISSN: 1471-6380
• ISSN: 0020-7438
• Keywords: Islamic authority; Muslim Brotherhood; al-Azhar; ʿAbd al-Fattah al-Sisi; Arab Spring