Gemayel Praises Azhar Bill of Rights on Basic Liberties

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel telephoned on Wednesday Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb of the Azhar mosque in Egypt, praising him on the Azhar’s bill of rights on basic liberties that was published on Tuesday.

Gemayel said in a statement: “The historic document included the general values that need to be followed in the Arab revolts and in the regimes that would be established as a result of these revolts.”

“It proposed a new Arab-Islamic approach that respects human rights, diversity, and coexistence among different religions,” he added.

“The document also warned against extremism and narrow-mindedness, which should guide the peoples of the region amid the changes that are taking place,” he noted.

The bill, which was announced Tuesday, is a bid by al-Azhar to assert its role as the voice of moderate Islam in the face of the growing political power of more conservative Islamic groups in Egypt following the February ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

The institution spent three months drawing up the document in collaboration with secular and Islamist scholars.

The conservative Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most organized political force, and the more radical ultraconservative Salafis, have won a majority in the country's first elected post-Mubarak parliament.

Both call for an Islamic basis for the state, raising worries among Egypt's liberal and Christian groups that conservative religious teachings will dictate the shape of the new constitution. In theory, parliament is to be in charge of nominating who will draft the document.

The Azhar document is the latest in a series of moves by the institution to raise its profile as Islamists rise to political prominence — and to rehabilitate its own image after decades of being seen as a tool of Egypt's regime.

Secular Egyptians, liberals and Christians, in turn, have welcomed its role, hoping it will give religious support for preserving broader democratic rights that they fear conservatives will try to limit.

A previous document by al-Azhar, also backed by intellectuals, supported the Arab revolutions and the public's rights to democratic change.

"This document has a moral strength because it has the backing of al-Azhar scholars, the weight of al-Azhar institute and the critical role of intellectuals," said Nabil Abdul-Fattah, a senior researcher on religion at the state-sponsored Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "

Al-Tayyeb told reporters that the bill of rights, which preserves freedoms of worship, opinion, scientific research and art and creative expression, was drafted to be a basis for the country's new constitution, according to comments published by Egypt's state news agency.

He said that Islamic rulings protect freedom of religion and guarantee equal citizenship rights, in a message of reassurance to Egypt's increasingly nervous Christian minorities.

Hassan al-Shafei, a senior Azhar official, said the document has been passed on to authorities to be considered in writing the constitution.