Egypt: Should the Grand Mufti Have Gone to Jerusalem? · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

On April 18 Ali Gomaa, the Egyptian Grand Mufti and one of the highest religious authorities in the Islamic world, visited Jerusalem for the first time. The visit was controversial since it was seen by many as a step towards normalised relations with Israel, which captured the western part of the city during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and later on occupied the eastern part of it during the 1967 Six-Day War. According to Ahram Online, Osama Yassin, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood's political party, called the visit “a total disaster and a blow to the national fight against normalisation with Israel that has been going on for years”.
Many in Egypt have criticised the Grand Mufti for his visit. Zeinobia commented on the fact that people from different political backgrounds in Egypt have finally agreed on something:
You can imagine the uproar in the Egyptian political scene after few hours of knowing about this visit. The nationalists, leftists and Islamists suddenly found something to agree upon at last.
Zeinobia also quoted presidential candidates such as Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh [ar] and Hamdeen Sabahi [ar], as well as MP Essam Sultan [ar] of Al Wasat Party, who all criticised Ali Gomaa.
Grand Mufti in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Photo shared by Twitter user @alhabibali
Some of the criticism focuses on the point that acquiring a visa from Israel is considered a form of normalisation and recognition of the state of Israel. But Gomaa said, “I did not go on an Israeli visa. It was all organized by the Jordanian authorities.”
Zeinobia elaborated:
Sheikh Ali Gomaa was invited to visit the Holy places in East Jerusalem by the Royal Jordanian family which till this day is supervising the Islamic Holy sites in Jerusalem. (A piece of information I had not known before that day.) He was accompanied by Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, King Abdullah’s cousin and his chief religious advisor. They were inaugurating the renovation of the Mughrabi Bridge, which leads into the courtyard of al-Aqsa mosque as well the Ghazli seat.
Khaled El-Baramawy tweeted:
Tunisian Twitter user Tounsia Hourra mocked the Mufti's denial that he took an Israeli visa:
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Aboul Maali Faek still regards the visit as recognition of Israel:
Ahmad Esseily, on the other hand, had a point concerning recognition:
This brings us to the fact that Pope Shenouda III, the Pope and Patriarch of the Church of Alexandria, who passed away a few weeks ago, requested Copts not to visit Jerusalem until peace was established in the region. Aly Elshafei ‏asked people to compare the two stances:
Nawara Negm joked in one of her tweets [ar] that the Mufti was waiting for the Pope to pass away before going there. According to Reem Al-Ashry things have changed for Copts since the Pope's death:
Mahmoud Hussien tweeted  [ar] that the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists were waiting for something like this, since they want to replace the Mufti with one of their own. Issandr El Amrani also expects they will call for him to be sacked:
He might also have known that the Islamist-dominated parliament would not be happy with this, and indeed there is now a move by Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood MPs to question him and possibly sack him (something that in theory is the prerogative of the president, or for now SCAF).
Emad Arab [ar] and Samar Ali [ar] both called for the Mufti to be sacked. Mourid El-Barghouti, Palestinian poet and author living in Egypt tweeted:
Al-Habib Ali Algafry is a Sufi scholar who also visited Jerusalem recently, and he congratulated [ar] the Mufti on his visit and on praying in Al-Aqsa mosque. The Saudi Islamic scholar Abdulrahman Al-Harfi attacked them both:
Monmon Salah commented [ar] that paying a visit to a prisoner is always useful to him and not to his jailers. As if she predicted this visit, Palestinian blogger Hanadi wrote a couple of months ago: