Egypt seeks to battle extremism through religious education
Egypt's Ministry of Awqaf is once again opening its training camps for religious education, looking to include women and young people in an effort to fight extremism.
CAIRO — After six years, Egypt is reopening religious training camps to bring its employees and others up to speed on their education and give them the tools to guard against extremist thought. In addition to targeting imams, administrative staff and midlevel department heads, the camps will target students of Al-Azhar institutes and, for the first time, female preachers.
The ministry also hopes the effort will strengthen its employees' "street cred," which has suffered among some young Muslims.
The camps were closed half a dozen years ago due to the country's unstable security conditions, but the Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) now believes "the dust has settled in Egypt," Sheikh Jaber Tayeh, the head of the ministry's religious department, told Al-Monitor.
The most recent reopening was Ras al-Barr camp in Damietta governorate in the northeast, which was opened Aug. 12, preceded by Abu Bakr al-Siddiq camp July 23 in Alexandria. The ministry said it plans to open other camps in Upper Egypt. The camps, which have been around for 30 years, have their own budget set by the Ministry of Awqaf.
