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Egypt: All art is “immoral,” says top cleric, known as a “moderate” around the world

Mar 14, 2017 10:32 am By Raymond Ibrahim

Art has a largely negative impact on human morality. So says Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al Azhar madrassa and arguably the “most influetial Muslim in the world.”

In a recent televised interview, Tayeb was asked “To what degree does art influence the morals of the youth.” The sheikh responded that art — presumably all forms and expressions of art, as no particular form was specified — has a 90 percent influence rate on the morality of the youth; and all of it is bad.

What is of note here is that, once again, Tayeb responds in a way that one is hard pressed to differentiate from the “radical” response. For we are constantly hearing that it is the “radical Muslims” — the ISIS types — who condemn all forms of art. Yet here is the “moderate” making essentially the same claims.

But of course, this is nothing new. As documented here, Tayeb agrees with any number of “radical” views: he believes that Islam is not just a religion to be practiced privately but rather is a totalitarian system designed to govern the whole of society through the implementation of its (otherwise human rights abusing) Sharia; he supports one of the most inhumane laws, punishment of the Muslim who wishes to leave Islam, the “apostate”; he downplays the plight of Egypt’s persecuted Christians, that is, when he’s not inciting against them by classifying them as “infidels” — the worst category in Islam’s lexicon — even as he refuses to denounce the genocidal Islamic State likewise.

One can go on and on. Tayeb once explained with assent why Islamic law permits a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman, but forbids a Muslim woman from marrying a Christian man: since women by nature are subordinate to men, it’s fine if the woman is an “infidel,” as her superior Muslim husband will keep her in check; but if the woman is a Muslim, it is not right that she be under the authority of an infidel. Similarly, Western liberals may be especially distraught to learn that Tayeb once boasted, “You will never one day find a Muslim society that permits sexual freedom, homosexuality, etc., etc., as rights. Muslim societies see these as sicknesses that need to be resisted and opposed.”

Also not new is how important Western and Christian institutions ignore all this and continue to portray Tayeb and Al Azhar as “moderates.” Thus, despite all the above — despite the fact that Al Azhar encourages enmity for non-Muslims, and has even issued a free booklet dedicated to proving that Christianity is a “failed religion” — it was recently announced that “the Vatican and Al-Azhar University, one of Islam’s most renowned schools of Sunni thought, will be joining forces to discuss how to fight religious extremism that uses God’s name to justify violence.”

Such are the mockeries of our time as ugly reality continues marching unopposed.

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Filed Under: Art & Culture, Egypt Tagged With: Ahmed al-Tayeb


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Comments

  1. Blurb1000 says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 10:45 am

    Muslims have no moral.

    • mortimer says

      Mar 14, 2017 at 5:50 pm

      Blurb, you are wrong about Islamic morals. Muslims have too many morals… they have dual moralities. Each rule has exceptions under Sharia law.

      This is an article about the Islamic attitude to ART, by the way. Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb is the TOP RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY in the Muslim world. He is roughly equivalent to a patriarch in an Orthodox church.

      When Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb speaks about art being ‘haram’, one billion Sunnite Muslims listen.

      • mortimer says

        Mar 14, 2017 at 6:03 pm

        Narrated ‘Aisha:
        Allah’s Apostle returned from a journey when I had placed a curtain of mine having pictures over (the door of) a chamber of mine. When Allah’s Apostle saw it, he tore it and said, “The people who will receive the severest punishment on the Day of Resurrection will be those who try to make the like of Allah’s creations.” So we turned it (i.e., the curtain) into one or two cushions.

        — Muhammad al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari

        Narrated Ali ibn Abu Talib:
        Safinah AbuAbdurRahman said that a man prepared food for Ali ibn Abu Talib who was his guest, and Fatimah said: I wish we had invited the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) and he had eaten with us. They invited him, and when he came he put his hands on the side-ports of the door, but when he saw the figured curtain which had been put at the end of the house, he went away. So Fatimah said to Ali: Follow him and see what turned him back. I (Ali) followed him and asked: What turned you back, Apostle of Allah? He replied: It is not fitting for me or for any Prophet to enter a house which is decorated.

        — Abu Dawood, Sunan Abu Dawood

        • Pete Korsos says

          Mar 15, 2017 at 10:07 am

          So God will be punished by Allah because God created us all differently. Yep, I get now……oh, let know when I can start laughing.

      • The Confessions says

        Mar 15, 2017 at 3:15 am

        Indeed mortimer. Not to mention Mohammed’s aversion and dislike for wine, dancing and musical instruments, especially the flute.

        =================================
        https://theconfessionsweb.wordpress.com/

    • Lia Wissing says

      Mar 15, 2017 at 7:25 am

      Keep praying, all who are Christians. Today is the Ides of March in the Netherlands.

    • Frank says

      Mar 15, 2017 at 9:28 pm

      Maybe somebody painted a picture of him.

  2. Angel Gabriel says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 10:48 am

    Obama wanted to keep out the very small percentage of Muslims that are terrorists ready to pop-off. As for the rest of them, he escorted them in as quickly as possible.

    What we need to do is only let in the very small percentage of TRULY LIBERAL Muslims and keep out the other 98%.

  3. mgoldberg says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 11:30 am

    “Art has a largely negative impact on human morality. So says Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al Azhar madrassa and arguably the “most influetial Muslim in the world.”

    Apparently slicing off peoples heads has no such impact on human morality.
    Apparently, blowing up kaffirs, has no such impact on human morality.
    Apparently, killing people who question the morals of mohammed, by quoting his text, and his actions
    has no impact on human morality.
    No discussing all this, and so much more would have a significant effect upon human morality especially since not discussing it is so utterly destructive.

  4. Westman says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 12:11 pm

    “..You will never one day find a Muslim society that permits sexual freedom, homosexuality, etc., etc., as rights. Muslim societies see these as sicknesses that need to be resisted and opposed.” – Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb

    Muslim societies don’t “see” anything, as they are but slaves to Allah and must conform to directions or suffer a response from the “brothers”. Their purpose in life is decided before they are born and that purpose is to submit and make the world submit to Allah.

    It is a sad legacy to claim to be the “best of peoples”, who host the most holy place of the hajj, while the pilgrims must use the arts of the “miserable” West – cars, planes, cell phones, TV, electricity, motors, air conditioners, etc – to travel and lodge there. Even the gleaming cities of SA are imports.

    If we measure society by its ability to remain constant, Islam, with its anti-bida is a sure winner. If we measure society by its ability to improve the living conditions, lifespan, and opportunities of life, Islam is an abject failure.

    And this is the world’s choice: a three-tiered (Allah-man-woman) system of personal slavery with limited rights that considers non-members as worthless, or, the freedom to choose both the Diety and self-direction of one’s life.

    One system looks back upon the great pyramids of Egypt and thinks, “We did great things, What happened?” The other keeps progressing and will ultimately make Islam irrelevant.

    We “see”, only too clearly, what happened, Ahmed.

  5. berserker says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 12:32 pm

    But sex slaves are fine.

    • john spielman says

      Mar 14, 2017 at 3:23 pm

      wasn’t there a FATWA by some cleric in Egypt a few years ago that prohibited muslim women from handling bananas and cucumbers ( naughty veggies ) and tomatoes could not be cut in certain way because the seed pattern made the shape of a cross inside!

  6. Gen Jones says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 12:56 pm

    Art is individualistic and paradoxically universal. It’s open to interpretation. It inspires, uplifts and yet sometimes enrages. It’s essentially about freedom so of course Islam is against it. What a small minded pipsqueak this guy is.

  7. utis says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 2:05 pm

    So this is a “moderate.” Why do Western leaders and academics kiss these men’s scaly tails? I’d ask were is at least the academic outcry, but American universities show what happens to right wingers.
    If I were an Egyptologist, I would have constant nightmares about what the imams could do to ancient Egypt’s art and architecture. The ISIS plague is obviously only a sample of what these iconoclastic scum can do.
    Until even a handful of Western authorities come forward, I wish them all hellish nightmares of their favorite artworks shredded or in flames. Just in the past year, some drunken Saudi prince damaged ancient Japanese statues. Sure they were just primitive folk art, but these holy creeps will do anything that offends their psycho religion. Nothing is safe.

  8. Jovial Joe says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 2:42 pm

    The art and beauty of Europe and her peoples; set for destruction like Palmyra unless the tide can be turned: https://youtu.be/wgqcBXrX1LA

  9. Angemon says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 2:44 pm

    The sheikh responded that art — presumably all forms and expressions of art, as no particular form was specified — has a 90 percent influence rate on the morality of the youth; and all of it is bad.

    I can confirm this: I saw a portrait of muhammad once and it filled me with a destructive anger I could barely control. I felt a sudden need to trash it, which raises an important point: is destructing a portrayal of muhammad halal (because islam forbids representations of human beings to prevent idolatry) or haram (because it would be an “insult” to muhamad)?

  10. Eur says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 3:49 pm

    He is an inquisitor, in fact all Muslims are.

  11. Spotted says

    Mar 14, 2017 at 5:54 pm

    It’s Mr. Bean.

  12. Troybeam says

    Mar 15, 2017 at 8:33 am

    Any form of expression is banned by Islam, art, music, movies etc. Islam destroys everything even the history of their culture before Mohammed, in foreign lands as an example of destruction the Maldives had a 3000 year old piece of art, one of a kind and it was destroyed when Islam installed sharia law. This is just one of many places that have seen the wrath of Islam.

    Remember people, ISIS like groups are not radical, they simply are following the words by Mohammed in the Koran, if you read the book you will see that, media portrays them as radical so Islam as a whole is shown non threatening.

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/02/islamists-storm-maldives-museum-destroy-entire-collection-of-12th-century-buddhist-relics/

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150901-isis-destruction-looting-ancient-sites-iraq-syria-archaeology/

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jean-newman-glock/the-egytian-museum-in-cai_b_1909684.html

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-militants-nimrud-northern-iraq-destroy-3000-year-old-city-archaelogists-ancient-palace-islamic-a7512526.html

  13. Manual Paleologos says

    Mar 15, 2017 at 9:55 am

    This is actually not very surprising. The koran contains a prohibition of graven images. Remember when the Assahola Khomeni stated that “there is no joy in islam?”

    One more time, islam has misunderstood and distorted the Truth of Judeo-Christianity. Islam is actually a Judeo-Christian heresy.

  14. Dan King says

    Mar 15, 2017 at 7:12 pm

    But don’t muslim men consider it their right/freedom to have child sex slaves of both sexes? So it is another hypocrite saying I can do it but you can not. And I have heard that the arabic script on the koran covers has been called artistic, so is he also saying the the koran has only bad influences on people (that part I can believe)? Or is this just another hypocritic belief that only muslims can create art , but one one else can?

  15. DRHazard says

    Mar 15, 2017 at 8:18 pm

    A true Muslim (like this fool) pretty much hates everything that makes the world a better place. It’s not just art. The long list of things and people to hate include science, history, human rights, women, pigs, wealth, knowledge, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists and most of all, facts.

  16. tbb says

    Mar 16, 2017 at 11:01 am

    Yet another example of islamic insanity.

  17. Brenda Romano says

    Mar 16, 2017 at 12:57 pm

    What would except someone who can’t draw to say? (sarcasm added)

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