Egypt's grand mufti calls for charity donations for military

The grand mufti of Egypt has caused outrage with a new fatwa making it permissible to give 'zakat' charity donations to the country's military and police.

Shawki Allam on Friday used the Hiwar al-Mufti programme on On-Live, to say zakat for armed forces fulfilled all Islamic requirements.

Translation: (minute 27:26 - 28:00) "Who is it [zakat] given to? Old interpreters used to say that this is spent on weapons and on soldiers who are fighting the enemy. This is basically protecting national security. So can't we spend, and give from the donations to the intellectual confrontation, seeing as we are facing an enemy that is ideological?"

Since his appointment as grand mufti in 2013, Allam has made numerous controversial rulings, including banning protesters who have been died from becoming martyrs. He is also responsible for reviewing all death sentences. According to Amnesty International: "Egypt's use of the death penalty has increased sharply since 2013."

The new fatwa comes at a time when Egyptians are facing dire economic conditions amid increased prices and growing poverty. In May, Egypt's inflation rate rose to 30 percent, the highest in three decades; and the price of fuel increased 55 percent in June, in a second increase since the Egyptian pound was floated in November 2016. 

However, the military has bolstered its economic influence since overthrowing the former president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013. It now has a hand in cement production, supplying medical items, and numerous other civil life sectors, with suggestions that the military controls as much as half of the country's economy.

'Wasn't the rice enough?!'

Social media users took to Twitter to respond to the news:

Translation: "Shawki Allam, aka mufti of blood from a number of executions he has ratified of opponents of the regime, is now paving the way for his leader, Sisi, to loot the zakat box. Wasn't the rice enough?! (In reference to the money Egypt received from Saudi Arabia and UAE.)

Translation: "So the poor are dying of hunger and we spend on the military?! May you be cursed."

Translation: "Sisi and the military are thieves. After all the money they got from the Gulf, now they want to steal the people's money using religion? What a shame on al-Azhar (for acting as a political weapon)."