Sheikh Saleh bin Abdel Azziz Al-Sheikh, the Saudi Minister for Islamic Affairs, has criticized certain practices that threaten to turn mosques from centers of worship to ones of incitement. Does a preacher have the right to say what he likes and to reflect his personal opinions in public issues?
Sheikh Saleh’s reply was a categorical no. The sermons in mosques are not supposed to be news or political reports. It is not a radio or television channel, nor is the preacher a newscaster or reporter. He added: “I admire the exceptional preacher who said: ‘My sermons are in accordance with the Shariah and not listeners’ requests.’”
All over the Islamic world, people are complaining of preachers taking advantage of the pulpit. In Morocco, the minister of endowment and Islamic affairs said: “I will not allow a parliamentary speaker or leader of a party to preach the Friday sermon.” Several years ago in Jordan, the law of preaching and guidance was enacted after mosques became overt assemblies for political parties. Their disagreements were carried into centers of worship. It was in Egypt that this phenomenon first appeared sometime in the seventies. As a result the government interfered to the point of deciding on the length of the Friday sermon. The minister for endowments decided that they should not last more than twenty minutes. Naturally nobody wants all this interference, however repellent those who politicize matters and however important ridding mosques of them may be.
Today we face the same problem here. Schools have turned into political parties and the houses of God into political arenas. During the past few years, preachers and mosques have undergone a real change, turning sermons into some kind of popularity contest as a means of evaluating preachers and mosques. As with the newspaper business, circulation is a measure of popularity.
Sheikh Saleh Al-Dusaimani, also a preacher, described the crisis in the following terms: “It is regrettable that some preachers in some Islamic nations have corrupted the pulpit ... turning it into a platform for profanity, abuse and insulting people and nations. Yet this is not the way of the Prophet (peace be upon him) — his method was to not single out individuals but generalize in terms of a people who did such and such or said such and such. Some preachers have turned the pulpit into a place to spread rumors and news as though the sermon was a newscast or political analysis and you will often find among the listeners some that do not know about Wudu’ (ritual cleansing) or Salat (prayer) or the principles of the religion.”
The use of mosques in this political manner is due to the infiltration of a particular group of people. They want to turn houses of worship into subsidiaries to their parties and a platform for their ideologies, knowing full well that what is said in mosques will be wholeheartedly believed and therefore a campaign is being waged against those slackening in their duties.
As we all know and as Sheikh Dusaimani has said, the duty of the mosque is “as a pulpit offering guidance to people and calling on them to do good and to touch on the needs of people in their religious duties and in their everyday dealings.” As for those seeking incitement or political discussions, why hijack the mosque when they can avail themselves of the hundreds of television channels that preach politics every evening?
Arab News Opinion 12 July 2003
