Function Transformations of the Mosque in the Thought of Islamic Movements in Egypt

Mahmoud Jamal Abdel Aal

In Muslim thought, mosques were associated with the Sultan. The style of mosques in the state was characterized by administration and speech. However, with the expansion of Islam and its spread, other types of mosques emerged, such as waqf mosques, government-owned mosques, among others. In this context, the idea of establishing mosques has become popular among the Islamic movements, which have worked to develop the functions of the mosque in order to play a preaching, religious role as well as awareness, social and charitable functions.

This paper examines the evolution of the mosque’s functions, which can be seen in public spaces where it provides services to the entire society without distinction, such as hospitals, charities attached to mosques, private spaces that are limited to the Muslim community, such as the mosque courtyard and event halls that limit their services to Muslims. In this context, Islamic movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists and others have taken control of the mosques’ spaces and even expanded their roles to ensure that they dominate the communities from the gate of the mosques, be it ideological, political or social.

The mosque: conceptual reading

The mosque is the most important Islamic religious buildings. Since the 11th century, a new system has been introduced to benefit from the mosques within the framework of transforming the functions of the mosque and expanding them to serve the Muslim community. They have emerged as schools for the teaching of Islamic jurisprudence, Quran, Hadith, religious doctrines and different sciences.

On the other hand, the mosque is the essence upon which the groups of Islamic movements rely on their political practices for the purpose of political employment, whether on society or politics. The mosque is known as the place where Muslims gather to pray (2). In the view of the jurisprudent Muhammad Ibn Abdullah al-Zarkashi, the mosque means in the language a place that originates from the place of “prostration”, and in this way it is purification and sanctification. In Islamic jurisprudence, prostration has its implications as man is closer to his Lord.

It is also called a “mosque” meaning the place where people gather for Friday prayers. Islam urges volunteering to build mosques, and to make it a great addition, which explains the rush of people to donate and participate in the construction of mosques. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said in a Hadith: “Whoever built a mosque, will have a house in paradise” (4).

In both meanings, the word “mosque” can be utilized and employed as an effective tool whether spiritually (prostration) or materially (gathering). This is what Dr. Khalil Al-Anani said in his interpretation of the religious phenomenon in the events of the Arab Spring, especially with regards to its use as points for the gathering of demonstrators in the 2011 events in Syria and Egypt (5).

The concept of “mosque” is related to other concepts such as “the pulpit”; it is a mirror of the knowledge and rules of Islam. The message of the pulpit is regarded as the most influential one on the people as it is derived from the essence of religion and its origins. Sheikh Mansour al-Rifai (former undersecretary of the Ministry of Waqfs for the affairs of preaching and mosques) also sees that the pulpit is the most important media center that helps in the manufacture of public opinion in the case of countries with a Muslim majority. All this led the political players to control it as the Islamists in Egypt after 2011 tried to dominate its rhetoric away from the authorities of the state and its employees.

The Mosque: Function Transformations

The Mamluks in Egypt monopolized the construction of mosques and spending on them to strengthen their relations with the Egyptian people, with whom they have only religious links. So, they strengthened such links through the construction of mosques. The mosques in the Mamluk period played a great political and social role. They were used as pulpits for preaching to appoint Mamluks and dismiss others in addition to its role as courtyards of the judiciary and various events. This is reflected in the recent development of mosques. It has become a place for practicing various political and social activities such as hospitals, educational centers or event halls.

1- The political role

The political role of the mosque dates back to the era of the Prophet and the Caliphate. It was taken as a headquarters for governance. The mosque later played an important role in establishing the foundations of the government. In this context, the movements of political Islam exploited the religious authority of the mosque to influence people’s lives, as happened in the constitutional elections that followed the January 25 revolution in Egypt and the recruitment of members. Many members of the Muslim Brotherhood pointed out that the stages of their recruitment into the group began from the space of the mosque and especially from the seminars of religious lessons that take place after prayers in what called “chasing the prey” (7).

The Salafist, Sheikh Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, has worked on the political employment of the Asad ibn al-Furat Mosque in Dokki (Giza governorate) as a stronghold to preach his political project, during which he fought a long struggle with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces with a view to pressure the public to enable him to contest the Egyptian presidential elections held in 2012.

2- Cultural and scientific role

The mosque played a major role in the dissemination of science, especially religious. Scientific seminars emerged within the great mosques, which witnessed the teaching of the sciences of the Qur’an, Hadith, and jurisprudence. In this context, Al-Maqrizi’s plans referred to the use of the Ahmad Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo as a scientific institution. The idea of universities and higher education emerged from mosques such as Zaytouna in Tunisia, Qarawein in Fez and Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo. The Islamic movements, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, sought the help of the preachers and the sheikhs to recruit new members. The group relied on the mosque to give lessons and religious sermons to improve its image in the mass media to counter negative propaganda against them.

According to Islamic movements, the project of supporting classes for students is a means of connecting Muslim youth to the mosque as well as a natural extension of the intellectual role that the mosque must play in society.

3. Social role

The mosque was not only a place of worship in the ideology of Islamic movements, but it was used as a tool to enter society. There is a comprehensive concept of the function of the mosque. This concept is concerned with meeting the needs of the people. The model of “Islamic compounds” attached to hospitals, charities, private classrooms and centers, event halls and educational incubators that serve the geographical area surrounding the mosque has emerged. Although these complexes play a charitable role in the community, especially the poor ones, this activity may be related to political employment attempts, especially after it emerged in the wake of the 2011 events. The Islamic movements used mosques and their activities to serve the politicians. For example, the Board of Directors of the Islamic Association, which has more than 6000 mosques in Egypt, supported the candidate with the Islamic background, Mohamed Morsi, at the expense of Ahmed Shafik. That was considered by some as a political deviation for those who carry out the activities of the Association, which dates back to 1912.

Any researcher will never be concerned about the positive role played by the mosque in the society, but he or she will try to understand the dynamics of relations that arise in the vicinity of its spaces, especially in cases of political control over its activities, which generate social dynamics. This can be seen in the political polarization such as the post-2011 Egypt crisis and the ousting of former President Mohamed Morsi in June 2013. These spaces were used as a space for political action, either to support these groups or to take up space for recruitment and mobilizing mass gatherings. The denial of radical currents from these gatherings is one of the most important determinants of state policy towards mosques.

The Mosque in the Thought of Islamic Movements

Through studying the thought of the Islamic movements towards the mosques, it can be conceived that their idea emerges from an overall perception of the role of the mosque as a scientific center in Muslim communities. In his sermon during the opening of a mosque affiliated to the group in Ismailia city, Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, called for donating to build mosques as they are considered public schools and popular universities visited by children, youth and old people. He also demanded its generation and the expansion of its activities to go beyond religious lessons and prayer to the annexation of hospitals and educational centers.

This view emerged effectively in the list of the formation of mosque reconstruction councils approved by the Muslim Brotherhood in the era of former president Morsi, where the Minister of Waqfs Mohammad Afifi announced his decision No. 75 for the year 2013 on the formation of “Councils for the Reconstruction of Mosques. The decision gave the mosque reconstruction councils a special importance as it guaranteed for them the powers to practice religious lessons and the Holy Quran workshops in the mosque as well as their responsibility in furnishing the mosque library and preparing the mosque for the exercise of its social role in its geographical environment, such as the formation of literacy classes, the establishment of medical complexes and the launch of workshops for teaching handicrafts such as knitting among others. They were also given the powers to direct supervision of the donation collection.

Resolution No. 75 of 2013 showed to a large extent the vision of the Islamic movements for the functions of the mosque, in terms of administration and supervision being the right of the Muslim community associated with the mosque. The media spokesman of the Waqfs Ministry considered that the decision restores to the mosques their historical role. On the other hand, the diversification of the activity within the mosque spaces is a re-establishment of its role in its neighboring geographical environment by providing daily and living services to the people, represented by its social activities, as well as a way of re-linking the people with the mosque.

Salafists have recently been playing the role of the Brotherhood in attracting young people through charitable activities in rural communities to polarize people. Among the services provided by the Salafists is the provision of private tutoring in the educational centers with the mosques they still hold, and the running of medical and veterinary convoys to provide free treatment to poor places. Their role also emerged in the floods that swept through the Ras Ghareb region in the Red Sea in 2016 as members of the Nur party launched relief campaigns from mosques near the party headquarters.

The mosque and the philosophy of space

The activity of the mosque may transcend its religious and spiritual functions, as well as its religious boundaries, in the service of the Muslim community to charitable and social functions to serve its surrounding community without discrimination, especially in the case of poor communities. This takes place particular with the decline of the pastoral state’s roles which can be more concerned with living conditions than ideologies.

The idea of the mosque’s spaces in Islamic political thought stems from the role played by the mosque in the life of Muslims. It was not a place to perform prayers only, but it was the seat of government and a place of education and judiciary in controversial issues and a platform for preaching for jihad and mobilizing armies in the state of the Prophet Muhammad. In this context, the Egyptian Minister of Waqfs, Hussein al-Shafei, adopted at a meeting of the Council of Ministers in 1968 the idea of exploiting the spaces of mosques for the exercise of service and community roles, in order to block the Islamic groups from carrying out this role.

Al-Shafei said there is a need for mosques to expand their activities and serve the surrounding communities, such as participation in the provision of education, health and medical services, as well as social welfare. Al-Shafei said that the integration of the trilogy of the state, the mosque and the local community serves the goals of the state (then) in achieving social justice and enables the institution of the mosque to perform new functions within the framework of modernity.

The social spaces that are confined to the mosque stand out in two parts. The first is the Society Service Center, which means a semi-public space for the provision of social services, charitable activities and the attached event halls. The revenues of such halls are considered one of the major sources of income for the government-owned mosques and the Ministry of Waqfs. The second is the Religious Service Center, which is a private space. Its services are limited to Muslims, such as practicing religious rituals and other religious services such as zakat committees or burial services for the Muslim individuals.

This is illustrated in Figure 2, where the public spaces of the mosque expand to include the most sought-after services of the Egyptian community, such as the most popular health care centers in the case of rural communities, which suffer from poverty and decline in services or the most demanded educational centers in the case of big cities, especially with the decline in the role of public schools in favor of private lessons and educational centers.

In this context, the current Minister of Waqfs, Mohamed Mukhtar Jumaa, announced the signing of a protocol of cooperation with the Ministry of Supply to provide 900 tons of foodstuffs to be distributed at an affordable cost for the poor and the needy. In this regard, the minister ordered the opening of 900 outlets to sell food commodities in mosques and unused spaces. This blocks the way for the exploitation of the Islamic movements of poverty in Egyptian society. (10)

The researcher is concerned about the role of the public and semi-public spaces of the mosques in directing these services to the society as a whole without discrimination, as long as they allow themselves to emerge from private spaces (worshiping and spiritual activities) to the public spaces (social activities) in relation to their public activities. This consolidates the values of citizenship away from the idea of the chosen category.

Finally, the Islamic movement groups have recognized the importance of religion as an essential component of people’s lives. So, they have exploited it to achieve their interests. This vision confirms that most of the Islamic movements were established in mosques, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists, and the Tabligh and Da’wa groups. This proves that the mosque has been and continues to be an important instrument of the Islamic groups to dominate society. Therefore, the state policies, especially after the ousting of former president Mohamed Morsi, are working on preventing these movements from controlling the spaces of the mosque and its activities, as well as limiting its social role by preventing them from reaching the grassroots.

List of references

1. Nabil Abdel Fattah, The Religious Situation in Egypt, Fifth Edition (Cairo: Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, 1995), p 379.
2. For further information, Look: JALE NEJDET, ERZEN, “Reading Mosques: Meaning and Architecture in Islam. “The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticis 69, no. 1 (2011), P.126.
3. Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Zarkashi, Information on the Provisions of Mosques, fifth edition (Cairo: Ministry of Waqfs, 1996), pp. 26-28. See also: Amr Ezzat, Who has the Pulpits Today?: Analysis of State Policy in Mosques Management, First Edition (Cairo: Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, August 2014).
4. Al-Zarkashi, op. Cit., P. 36.
5. Khalil al-Anani, The Role of Religion in the Public Domain in Egypt After the January 25 Revolution, Research Papers, Pp. 2-4, Available at: https: //goo.gl/ZSkXKb
6. Mansour Al-Rifai Obaid, Preachers and Social Development, First Edition (Cairo: Library of the Arab Book House, 1997), pp. 56, pp. 73-75.
7. Khalil al-Anani, Inside the Muslim Brotherhood: Religion, Identity, and Politics, 1sted, Oxford University Press, 2016.
8. Hassan al-Banna, Memoirs of the Call and Preacher, Mohammed al-Baz (study and presentation), third edition (Cairo: treasures of publication and distribution, 2013), p 173-177.
9. Morroe Berger, “The Mosque: Aspects of Governmental Policy towards Religion in Egypt Today.” Middle Eastern Studies 6, no. 1 (1970), P.29.

10- Fadi El Sawy, Waqfs: Food Outlets Are not for Profit and We Recognize the Sanctity of Mosques, Masr el-arabiya(18/4/2017), the link: https://goo.gl/1JyUOW, see also: Mahmoud Ashab, Protocol of Cooperation between Supply and Waqfs Ministries to Provide Free Ramadan Packages for the Poor, Al-Ahram Gate (16/4/2017), the link: https://goo.gl/YilSI5