PUTRAJAYA, Oct 15 (Bernama) -- The appointment of former Egyptian Grand Mufti Sheikh Dr Ali Gomaa as an adviser to the Malaysian Pondok and Turath Advisory Council should be assessed fairly based on his expertise in Islamic scholarship rather than political controversies in Egypt.
Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia (YADIM) Nadwah Ulama dan Ilmuwan Islam (NUIM) chairman Dr Bashir Mohamed Al Azhari said Sheikh Ali Gomaa's contributions to Islamic education, particularly traditional religious studies, should be the main consideration.
“Egypt's long and complex political history should not be the sole measure of the credibility of a religious scholar who has devoted decades to Islamic scholarship,” he said in a statement today.
Bashir said Sheikh Ali Gomaa's emphasis on national stability, institutional continuity, and preventing unrest should be understood within Egypt's political context.
He argued that it would be unfair to portray the scholar as having opposed former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi from the outset solely because of differences in political affiliation.
Bashir was responding to former foreign minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah’s call for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim not to appoint a foreign religious scholar to the government-proposed Pondok and Turath Advisory Council.
He said Sheikh Ali Gomaa's contributions to traditional Islamic education had also received academic recognition, citing doctoral research by Harvard University's Dr Mary Elston documenting his role in reviving traditional Islamic study circles at Al-Azhar Mosque in the 1990s.
Bashir said Sheikh Ali Gomaa had practical experience in rebuilding the culture of studying turath texts, strengthening teacher-student relationships and restoring traditional methods of turath learning through established chains of scholarly transmission.
“That experience makes him highly relevant as a key adviser in efforts to strengthen pondok and turath education in Malaysia,” he said.
Bashir stressed that appointing Sheikh Ali Gomaa as an educational adviser would not mean Malaysia endorsed his political positions concerning Egypt, but rather that it sought to benefit from his expertise in Islamic education.
“NUIM urges the public, politicians and media practitioners to respect the complexities of other countries' political situations, distinguish political disagreements from assessments of religious and scholarly expertise, and evaluate the appointment based on the council's actual objectives,” he added.
-- BERNAMA