The salafī al-Nūr Party caused a crisis over its attacks on Grand Shaykh of the Azhar Dr. Ahmad al-Tayīb for his position to keep Article II of the Constitution unchanged and reject the inclusion of an explanation of the word ‘principles’ in the same article.
[Reviewer’s Note: Article II of the Egyptian Constitution reads, “Islam is the official religion of the state, Arabic its official language and the principles of Islamic sharī’ah are the main source of legislation”. Salafists seek removing the word ‘principles’ or replacing it with the word ‘rulings’]
A number of civil political parties as well as the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood group, expressed outright solidarity with Dr. Tayīb and supported his position rejecting removal of the word principles from Article II.
The parties also criticized al-Nūr’s psotion and warned of the salafī ideologies that could “drag the nation back to the Medieval Ages”. [Ahmad ‘Allām, al-Misrī al-Yawm, July 9, p. 4] Read original text in Arabic
