Egypt has moved to curb one of the last bastions of Muslim Brotherhood dissent with sweeping new rules to curtail violent protest at Al-Azhar University, among the world’s most venerable centers of Islamic learning.
Egypt has banned the Muslim Brotherhood and jailed thousands of its supporters since July 2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mohammad Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president and a senior member of the group.
As the noose tightened around the Brotherhood, Al-Azhar emerged as a hotspot in its battle against Egypt’s new rulers.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb said in a meeting Thursday with the heads of several universities and some ministers that Egypt would not tolerate violence on any university campus, his office said in a statement.
An Interior Ministry official said security forces would carry out patrols around schools and universities during the academic year, the state news agency reported.
The grand mufti, Egypt’s top religious authority, and the grand imam of Al-Azhar, have long lent their prestige to those in power and issued religious edicts to back government policy.
But the Brotherhood enjoys strong support within the student body as well as among faculty members, many of whom oppose Sisi and his crackdown on Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement.
With students preparing to return to their campuses this month after the long summer hiatus, the government Wednesday amended the university rules to discourage renewed unrest.
The new rules state that any student or faculty member who incites, supports or joins in protests that disrupt learning or promote rioting or vandalism will be expelled or fired.Read the rest of the Story HERE.
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