Scholars' meddling in political affairs

The chief of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, had issued a fatwa (religious edict) urging Egyptians to cast their votes in the presidential elections held recently warning that abstaining from going to the polls is haram (un-Islamic). Before the issuance of this fatwa by the top Egyptian scholar, a number of scholars had warned against voting saying participation in elections was haram. About a month earlier, scholars differed on visiting Al-Quds (Jerusalem). The imam of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, had said visiting Al-Quds was haram, while the Grand Mufti of Egypt contended it was not. The two sheikhs belonged to different political camps.
In Jordan, one of the scholars ruled that the Palestinians would be committing grave sins if they opted for the Jordanian nationality.
Most of these fatwas are political in nature and have nothing to do with religion. With Islamists coming to power in various countries, the fatwas are expected to increase remarkably. A fatwa by one of the Al-Azhar scholars that said, voting for the candidates considered to be part of the defunct regime — including Ahmed Shafiq and Amr Moussa — was haram, has been greatly publicized by the Islamists. When he was asked about the origin of his fatwa, the scholar recited the Hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) that a Muslim would not be bitten from the same hole twice.
In the recent past, some Egyptian scholars were issuing fatwas to enable Jamal Mubarak, the son of the deposed president, to inherit his father and become the next president of Egypt. Now they have turned against them to the extent that one of the scholars said it was totally against Islam even to think of marrying someone from Mubarak's family.
Some scholars have joined politics with the aim of making it solely confined to certain Islamic groups. The politicians, who are now using the scholars to win political battles, will later find themselves competing against Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis. Without preventing scholars from issuing fatwas on all political issues, the Islamists who come to power may be fighting against themselves.
We do not expect the religious men to abstain from expressing their views and ideas. Like other citizens, the scholars have every right to express themselves and have their own choices. But what they say should be considered just opinions by human beings and not a divine ones. What many of the scholars say should not be considered as something revealed to them by God. Therefore, their views should be considered just like the views and ideas of other ordinary people.
We do not also expect Muslim scholars to live in seclusion like the Christian hermits eating hard bread with water and keeping themselves aloof from what is happening in the world around them. We actually want our contemporary scholars to emulate their predecessors, who were known for their purity and chastity. Today, when a scholar is given a certain government position, many others get angry and jealous. In Saudi Arabia people could not believe their ears when they heard a scholar crying and yelling after a certain government job, he was dreaming of, was given to another scholar. Because of this, he changed all his previous fatwas and views.
Some people may argue that the involvement of religious men in politics was not new. I agree, but I want to tell them that the quantity and nature of the fatwas have remarkably increased these days. The scholars are now volunteering to give fatwas on issues that do not warrant fatwas in the first place. The scholars are conflicting against themselves to the point that they have lost respect by others. In the past, the scholars remained close to politics. Now they are in the middle of it. They have become very close to the politicians and rulers.
In politics, which is ever changing, halals and harams are not distinctively clear. Some of our contemporary scholars are very ambitious. They want to become rulers so as to enjoy wealth, power and fame, while in the past, the scholars were known for their humility and simplicity in what they used to eat, wear or ride. Today, it is difficult to differentiate between a scholar and a businessman. They all wear expensive clothes, ride luxurious cars and live in grand palaces.
This is their choice, but they have certainly distorted their picture in the eyes of the society. They have tarnished this image by their love for appearances, their eagerness to please the rulers, and the sharp competition among themselves to issue conflicting fatwas.