People's Assembly member Ahmad al-Sahafi wants to know what the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments has done to encourage imāms to push for acceptance and co-existence between the country's Copts and Muslims, especially in light of the
New Year's Day attack on a church in Alexandria.
According to a report by al-Yawm al-Sābi‘, al-Sahafi has submitted a formal question to Endowments Minister Mahmūd Hamdī Zaqzūq regarding how the ministry encouraged imāms “to renew religious discourse and emphasize tolerance between Copts and Muslims.”
The report says, “This raised the following question: Has the ministry issued instructions to imāms to speak about certain issues in the wake of the Alexandria incident?”
This allegation was denied by Shaykh Shawqī ‘Abd al-Latīf, the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Endowments for Religious Affairs, who told the paper that imāms and preachers are not in need of being alerted to stay away from that which could arouse Fitnah [Tā’ifīyah].
He further said that if the Endowments Ministry had wanted to control what was said in mosques after the Alexandria incident, it would have simply prepared a unified Friday sermon to be used at all mosques across Egypt.
However, ‘Abd al-Latīf says that Zaqzūq rejected a unified sermon on the grounds that what was said in an area such as Zamalek [an expensive district in Cairo] would not be understood in the same way by those in country villages because of inevitable cultural differences.
