Al Azhar replaces university president

Cairo // The head of Egypt’s Al Azhar university, the world’s leading seat of Sunni Islamic learning, has been replaced after labelling a controversial Muslim reformer an apostate, the institution said.

Ahmed Hosni Taha, the acting university president, had been forced to apologise on Thursday after saying reformer Islam Al Behairy was an “apostate” for attacking some of the founding scholars of Islamic law.

His apology was followed by a statement on Friday from Al Azhar saying that Grand Imam Ahmed Al Tayeb, who heads the institution that runs the university, had replaced Mr Taha.

Mr Taha had made the remarks about Mr Al Behairy during a television interview.

“My response ... was incorrect and it contradicts the way of Al Azhar,” Mr Taha said in an apology posted on the university’s website.

Mr Al Behairy was a talk-show host who had infuriated Al Azhar’s traditional clergy with attacks on canonical religious books and some of Sunni Islam’s most important scholars.

He was sentenced to a year in prison for “insulting religion” and released in late 2016 in a presidential pardon.

The shake-up comes as the university faces criticism from Egypt’s parliament and sections of the media, who say its clerics have resisted pressure to modernise their religious discourse to help the fight against extremism.

*Agence France-Presse