Summary:

Arab-West Report's most recent paper explores the topics of freedom of expression and censorship in relation to Egyptian media works. Egypt has seen a number of organizations and individuals arguing for the need to censor and ban material from being published. While a wide range of entities and individual activists have been active in promoting censorship in Egypt, perhaps the most prominent institution to engage in banning books has been the Islamic Research Academy under the Azhar University. The Azhar's role as a highly esteemed interpreter and arbiter in Islamic issues is the main focus of this paper which showcases how the institution has special weight as an authority in censorship cases.

The censorship activities of the Azhar allows the reader to shed light on the Azhar's perceptions of religion and freedom of expression. Its arguments for banning material, as described in the paper, have been characterized by a strong emphasis on the sanctity of religion and religious figures and upholding the morals and values of society. The censorship cases presented in this report give an indication of the direction in which the institution seeks to move society.

The study outlines the historical background of The Islamic Research Academy covering a brief historical overview of the Azhar University. The historical background explains the changes in the relationship between the Egyptian state and the Azhar University over the last two hundred years focusing on the influence Muhammad ^cAlī had on the university as well the centralization of the Azhar and the placing of more power in the hands of grand shaykh. The article also covers the role that Nāsir's regime had on the university and in particular, the policy to nationalize mosques to which was also supported by the Mubārak presidency.

The paper also explores the Azhar's influence in the 1990s after the rising of extremist violence in the 1990s. The Egyptian government relied on the Azhar to counter the rhetoric of Islamist groups with the Azhar's power increasing and being put in a position to make more independent stance on a number of issues. It was, to a certain extent, the Islamic threat and the Egyptian governments need for the Azhar as an ideological front against the Islamic militants that allowed the institution to reassert its influence especially in the cultural sphere.

The articles also explores censorships in the 1980s and 1990s and how the institution was given more leeway in censoring books and media after the nomination of Jād-Al-Haqq ^cAlī Jād Al-Haqq to the post of Shaykh of the Azhar, who held highly conservative views and challenged the government on a number of issues. Furthermore the general drift toward a more conservative, wahhābī-inspired Islam from the 1970s onward may also have had an influence on the Azhar. The Islamic Research Academy thus censored tens of books and other media in the 1980s and 1990s. The article covers censorship examples in 2003 goes through a variety of case studies relating to the academy's role and influence over the banning of various books and literacy works from recent years and seeks to present the justifications for banning various works.

The article also explores censorship under Shaykh Muhammad Sayyid Tantāwī. After the death of Shaykh Jad al-Haqq Ali Jad al-Haqq in 1997, Muhammad Sayyīd Tantāwī was appointed Shaykh of the Azhar and he nourished more liberal views than his predecessor. This, however, did not mean that the institution gave up its recommendations of censorship. Furthermore, Shaykh Tantāwī explained the role of the Islamic Research Academy in not the confiscation and banning of books but that its role was to make recommendations that the book be banned.

The justifications of censorship and banning of books and media work represent a rather different understanding of freedom of expression from the one that certain newspapers in Europe have been promoting since the publication of the aforementioned Danish cartoons. The justifications provide an interesting insight into the context and arguments for the implementation of religious censorship in Egypt.