Al Azhar urges authorities to enforce ban on student protests

Thursday, Nov 21, 2013

Cairo: Al Azhar University, Egypt’s major Islamic academic centre, has banned demonstrations by students after deadly clashes between students and security forces.

“The board of the university has decided to prohibit demonstrations on the camp and calls on the Interior Ministry to enforce this decision,” the Cairo-based university said in a statement following an emergency meeting. The board added that the decision has been taken after what it called “barbaric, unjustified attacks taking the shape of non-objective demonstrations”.

The decision also included suspending all activities by the university’s Student Union. One medical student was on Wednesday killed and dozens injured in clashes between Al Azhar students and police at the university’s hostel I the eastern Cairo area of Nasr City.

Sixteen students were arrested in the aftermath on charges of rioting, according to security sources. The violence was the latest to hit the university, a stronghold of Islamists since July when the army deposed president Mohammad Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, following enormous protests against his one-year-old rule.

The students have repeatedly demanded the sacking of Al Azhar Shaikh Ahmad Al Tayyeb and the university president Osama Al Abed for publicly supporting Mursi’s overthrow. Last month, Al Abed asked security forces to enter the campus to maintain order after pro-Mursi students had allegedly attacked and ransacked administrative offices. Security forces are still positioned there. Earlier this month, a Cairo court sentenced 12 students to 17 years in prison each on charges of violence and vandalism for attacking Al Azhar premises.

The ruling has been slammed by Islamists and rights groups as too harsh. Another court has set February 15 to decide on appeals against the verdict.

By Ramadan Al Sherbini, correspondent