CAIRO, 11 September 2003 — A Muslim preacher is filing a lawsuit against the Egyptian government for interfering in his sermons, demanding two million dollars in compensation.
Ibrahim Al-Kholi, imam at a mosque in the Cairo suburb of Helwan, asked the courts to order the Ministry of Religious Affairs to stop interfering in his sermons.
Kholi, a professor at the Al-Azhar Islamic University, said he would donate any award to the Palestinian Authority in support of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
The case is set to open on Oct. 5 before the administrative court in Cairo.
However, a spokesman for the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Adel Mugahed told Agence France Presse he knew nothing about the case, adding it was “farfetched.”
Religious Affairs Minister Mahmud Hamdi Zaqzuq last month denied trying to monitor sermons at Egyptian mosques but a source close to his ministry said that authorities would set the rules for sermons to avoid subversion.
An official at Al-Azhar, a prestigious mosque and university which serve as the leading authority for Islam worldwide, said Egyptian authorities have for two months been debating “the question of sermons” at Friday prayers.
A source close to the project said the aim was to prevent extremists from giving sermons or inciting people to rise up against the government.
Former Banker Jailed: A former MP and Egyptian bank chief was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison for helping businessmen secure unguaranteed loans, court sources said.
Abdullah Abdul Fattah Tayel, head of the state-run Misr-Exterior Bank until he was elected to Parliament in 2000, was jailed by Cairo criminal court, the sources said.
Seven other people implicated in the case, bank employees and businessmen, were given terms ranging from a one-year suspended jail sentence to three years in prison.
The court acquitted five other defendants.
Tayel was charged with several crimes, including having ordered bank employees to write off as unrecoverable loans, after obtaining the sums through fake firms belonging to his sons and relatives.
