Egypt purging Brotherhood from Ministry of Endowments
Egypt's Ministry of Religious Endowments has banished from the pulpit imams it says are members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
CAIRO — The Egyptian Ministry of Endowments is continuing its campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood by dismissing 10 more imams, and the regime has similar plans for civil servants.
The ministry on Nov. 21 said the imams can no longer deliver sermons from pulpits because they are affiliated with the outlawed Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
In a statement, the ministry said it was dismissing nine imams from the southern province of Sohag and another from Qalyubia province north of Cairo. The statement explained that court rulings had been issued against the preachers.
Sheikh Mahmoud Youssef, one of the dismissed imams from Sohag, told Al-Monitor he was surprised by the ministry’s decision, which he said was based on trumped-up security investigations and allegations by some residents. He said he had been a member of the Brotherhood at one time, but severed all ties with the group and its members once Egypt designated it a terrorist organization in December 2013. He said he will file a grievance with the ministry against the decision to dismiss him and will also challenge the decision before the State Council’s Administrative Court.
