CAIRO, (Reuters) – Egyptian authorities said yesterday Muslim clerics would be required to read out identical pre-written weekly sermons as part of the government’s campaign against extremism, drawing angry criticism from some preachers.
The ministry of religious endowments has since 2014 been providing imams with topics for their sermons at Friday prayers but the latest move confines preachers across the country to reading from the same script.
“No one disagreed during the meeting (of officials on Tuesday) and all the undersecretaries received the new instructions on pre-written unified sermons without incident,” said the ministry’s First Undersecretary for Qalyubiya province Sabry Dowaidar.
“The minister (Mohamed Gomaa) said he would start with himself and deliver the pre-written sermon (in a mosque) next Friday.”
An undersecretary from a different province who requested anonymity said the sermons would be written by ministry officials and senior clerics from Al-Azhar, the 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning in Cairo.
