Ahmed el-Tayeb

Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb (أحمد محمد أحمد الطيب; born 6 January 1946) is an Egyptian Islamic scholar and the current Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Al-Azhar Al Sharif and former president of al-Azhar University.

Al-Tayeb studied Doctrine and Philosophy at Al-Azhar University, where he graduated in 1969, after that he had a master's degree and Ph.D. in Islamic philosophy in 1971 and 1977 respectively.

Later on, he went to study at the University of Paris for six months, from December 1977 to 1978.

Afterwards, he held academic posts at Al-Azhar University, then administrative roles in Qena and Aswan, and worked at the International Islamic University, Islamabad in Pakistan in 1999–2000.

Between 2002 and 2003, al-Tayeb served as Grand Mufti of Egypt.

Al-Tayeb is a hereditary Sufi shaykh from Upper Egypt and has expressed support for a global Sufi league.

He was president of Al-Azhar University from 2003 until 2010.

Prior to his appointment as the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and president of al-Azhar University, he was a member of Mubarak's National Democratic Party's Policies Committee.

He initially refused to resign from his position in the National Democratic Party (NDP) by saying that there was no conflict between his role at Al-Azhar and membership in the party.

He was appointed by the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, following the death of Mohamed Sayed Tantawy in 2010.

He is from Kurna, Luxor Governorate in Upper Egypt, and he belongs to a Sunni Muslim family.

In April 2010, he resigned from his post in the party.

In an article published shortly after his appointment as president of Al-Azhar University, he was described as "a regime loyalist and member of Mr. Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party [who] takes a firm stance against the Muslim Brotherhood".

Tayeb was quoted as saying that Al-Azhar University would "never be an open field for the Brotherhood".

The same article reported that the Muslim Brotherhood's leader, Mohammed Badie, had congratulated Tayeb on his appointment.

At the same time, the Brotherhood senior member, Sheikh Sayed Askar, also an Azharite, accused the government of "promoting one of its own at the expense of people better suited to the post".

Criticism intensified after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

Some Muslim Brotherhood members accused him of being "a remnant of the ousted Mubarak regime and National Democratic Party".

In 2011, following the Egyptian revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood held a rally at the Al-Azhar mosque to oppose what it described as the Judaization of Jerusalem.

He said at the rally that "the al-Aqsa Mosque is currently under an offensive by the Jews" and "we shall not allow the Zionists to Judaize al-Quds [Jerusalem]".

He also alleged that Jews around the world were trying to prevent Islamic and Egyptian unity.

He backed the military coup against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

He has strongly rebuked the Sunni anti-Alawite preaching, which has increased since the Syrian Bashar Al Assad regime, cracked down on the Sunni Muslim rebels in the Syrian Civil War.

He has strongly condemned the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and stated that it is acting "under the guise of this holy religion and have given themselves the name 'Islamic State' in an attempt to export their false Islam" and (citing the Quran).

"The punishment for those who wage war against God and his Prophet and who strive to sow corruption on earth is death, crucifixion, the severing of hands and feet on opposite sides or banishment from the land. This is the disgrace for them in this world and in the hereafter they will receive grievous torment".

He has been criticized for not expressly stating that Islamic State was heretical.

The Ash'ari school of Islamic theology – to which El-Tayeb belongs – does not allow calling a person who follows the shahada an apostate.

Al-Tayeb has strongly come out against the practice of takfirism, declaring a Muslim an apostate, which is used by Islamic State to "judge and accuse anyone who doesn't toe their line with apostasy and outside the realm of the faith" and declares "jihad on peaceful Muslims" by using "flawed interpretations of some Qur'anic texts, the prophet's Sunna, and the Imams' views, believing incorrectly that they are leaders of Muslim armies fighting infidel peoples in unbelieving lands".

In late 2016, at a conference of over a hundred Sunni scholars in Chechnya, al-Tayeb defined orthodox Sunnism as "the Ash'arites and Maturidites (adherents of the theological systems of Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi and Imam Abul Hasan al-Ash'ari) ... followers of any of the four schools of thought (Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki or Hanbali) and ... also the followers of the Sufism of Imam Junaid al-Baghdadi in doctrines, manners and [spiritual] purification."

Having said that, Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayeb excluded the “Salafis” from the term of Ahluls Sunna (Sunnis) stating that Salafis – also known as Wahhabis – are not from among the Sunnis.

The conference was believed to have been designed to take an "uncompromising stand against the growing Takfiri terrorism that is playing havoc across the world."

In 2016, he reissued the fatwa on Shia Muslims, calling Shia the fifth school of Islam and seeing no problem with conversions from Sunni to Shia Islam.

On 7 November 2017, he met Pope Francis in the Vatican, to discuss spreading the culture of peace and coexistence and renouncing extremism and Islamophobia.

In February 2019, they met again in Abu Dhabi during the Pope's visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he also signed the Document on Human Fraternity.

On 15 November 2019, they met again in the Vatican, to achieve the goals of the signed document.

This text later inspired the UN resolution that designated February 4 as the International Day of Human Fraternity.

He wrote that Islam forbids Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims, because the latter do not believe in the Prophet Muhammad and his religion, meanwhile Muslim men would allow their non-Muslim women to practice their religion freely.

In May 2021, he wrote on Twitter: "A woman is permitted to assume senior positions such as in the judiciary or the issuing of fatwas and is also allowed to travel without a guardian", then he added, "there is “no such as thing" as 'Bait Al-Ta’a' (House of Obedience) in Islam, and that guardians have "no right" to prevent women from marrying without adequate reasons."