Al-Azhar's reversal on Gaza exposes a deeper moral crisis in the Muslim world

Middle East Eye

3 days ago

Nearly two years into a livestreamed genocide, unprecedented in its visibility and impunity, there has still been no meaningful action by world leaders to halt it.
Israel's systematic mass murder of Palestinians through both direct and indirect means continues unabated. For weeks, Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has been reminding anyone who would listen that it has three months' worth of food supplies stored just a few miles from Gaza, across the border in Egypt.
Egypt - home to the millennium-old Al-Azhar Mosque and university - has, over the years, been instrumental in maintaining Israel's blockade on Gaza's southern border. Today, it is actively contributing to the genocide by preventing the flow of aid in accordance with the wishes of the Zionist regime to the north.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power in a 2013 coup openly backed by Washington and Tel Aviv, so it is hardly surprising that the sense of mutual commitment runs deep.
However, Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar, has in recent years shown a degree of independence from Sisi, even voicing concern for the people of Gaza in periodic public statements.
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While lacking political power, he wields considerable symbolic authority as head of one of the world's oldest seats of Islamic religious learning. He thus has the potential to speak not only for the moral conscience of Egyptians, but for that of the entire Muslim umma - if he rises to the moment.
None of his statements have been enough to prevent the killing of tens of thousands of people, but for the past 22 months, Egypt's most important religious figure had at least withheld tacit approval of the state's complicity in the genocide.
That changed this week when al-Tayeb issued his strongest condemnation of the genocide to date - only to reverse course hours later under pressure from the Egyptian state.
Courage rescinded
On Tuesday evening, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar issued a powerful statement appealing to people of conscience around the world to take immediate action to bring an end to the "barbaric and brutal genocide" being perpetrated by the Israeli occupation.
In a long statement that may be read in full here, al-Tayeb was unrelenting in his condemnation not only of the brutality of Israel's "systematic genocide", but also of the silence of the powerful - of governments, and even of the Egyptian state - in allowing it to persist.
At a moment when moral backbone is most needed, a rare glimmer of hope from Egypt vanished without explanation
It concluded with a "resounding appeal to all free and honourable people of the world to break their silence, take a strong and immediate stance, and pressure their governments and international organisations to open the Rafah crossing and all other possible crossings to allow the entry of humanitarian, medical, pharmaceutical, and food aid".
Given that the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing contains the aid trucks and storage facilities where UN supplies have been waiting for months, this could be seen as the sheikh's implicit criticism of the Egyptian state's complicity in Gaza's starvation.
But if it was such a criticism, it was not to last.
Within minutes, the statement was taken down, shocking and dismaying observers who had seen in it a rare moment of moral clarity. Many took to social media to express their outrage and disbelief.
Amid one of the lowest points of this genocide, when moral backbone from leaders is most needed, a glimmer of hope appeared from one of Egypt's few institutions that had shown even a modicum of independence - only to vanish moments later, without explanation.
Hours later, Al-Azhar's official media office issued a brief but defensive alternative statement. With spin worthy of a White House press secretary, the post described the removal as an act done "courageously and responsibly before God", claiming it did not wish to undermine Egyptian efforts to negotiate a truce.
Moral imperative
Reports suggest that the withdrawal of the initial statement came under pressure from the Egyptian state. Of course, there is no evidence that the retraction brought the genocide any closer to an end, nor should any be expected.
Sisi has for years clashed with al-Tayeb over matters of religious and moral authority, but he has not had enough political capital to remove him.
The grand sheikh has carved out a domain in the spiritual realm that Sisi can complain about, but not control.
Yet in a case like Gaza, where politics, religion, and morality are inextricably linked, the religious and moral imperative to speak out in defence of fellow Muslims facing extermination should transcend the political machinations that have enabled this genocide.
The dissent from Al-Azhar marked a critical rupture in the region's complicity.
Al-Tayeb's retreat is especially stark in contrast to the unwavering stance of another prominent religious figure in the Arab world: the Mauritanian Sheikh Muhammad al-Hassan al-Dadow.
A defiant voice
On the same day that al-Tayeb issued his now-retracted condemnation of the genocide, al-Dadow posted a five-minute video (translated here) on his social media pages, calling on the world to do everything in its power to bring it to an end.
Al-Dadow is among the few senior scholars who have consistently denounced the region's power-brokers for facilitating what he has called a Zionist "final solution" against Palestinians.
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Early on in the genocide, he delivered a striking warning that Muslim rulers and their armies, virtually in their entirety, will be held accountable before God for "every drop of blood that has fallen in Gaza" due to their abandonment of its people.
It is a message he has repeated since Israel launched its war on Gaza, at times citing the example of Egypt's only democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, who helped end the 2012 Israeli assault through determined diplomatic intervention.
In a speech delivered in early 2024, al-Dadow argued that any Muslim head of state - whether in Turkey, Saudi Arabia or elsewhere - could do the same, if they wished.
His comments are a direct rebuke of Muslim heads of state, whose condemnations of the genocide have been as abundant as they are futile - empty rhetoric unaccompanied by any meaningful action against Israel.
As one social media user, Naks Bilal, responding to the Malaysian prime minister's recent condemnation video, put it:
Gaza genocide: How Arab regimes became the enemy within Read More »
To be utterly blunt, I'm - in fact I think we're - beyond this now. Heads of nations supporting Palestine with thoughts and prayers, but none willing to send humanitarian military intervention. Forty-eight Muslim-majority countries, 22 Arab states - all afraid of Nato and doing what's right.
All the collective firepower to rain absolute hell down on Israel, but they insist on calling this super meeting, and that ultra conference, meanwhile Palestinians are paying $1,000 for flour and being massacred in queues waiting for aid.
Save these videos for the next life.
Al-Dadow's words also serve as a challenge to Muslim figures like Al-Azhar's grand sheikh, who must recognise his responsibility to speak for the voiceless Palestinians being killed with the complicity of the very government seeking to silence him.
There is nothing left for the political class to say - only actions left to take. And for religious authorities like al-Tayeb the time to stand up for Gaza is now.
His recent failure to stand up to a Muslim ruler complicit in the Gaza genocide is a sobering reminder that the roots of this crime lie deep within.
Genuine courage - not cowardice - is what is needed most to confront the demons of complicity that haunt the Muslim body politic.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.