CAIRO: The Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowment) unified this Friday sermon to be about participation in the parliamentary elections, which is set to begin Saturday abroad.
Last year, the ministry issued a decision to unify Friday prayer speeches in all Egyptian mosques to prevent their use as platforms for political purposes or for preaching radical Islam.
Accordingly, the ministry publishes a monthly release on its website with the title and the details of the subject of each week’s sermon.
This week, the topic titled “The new Hijri [Islamic] year and the positive participation.” The ministry demanded all preachers to discuss Prophet Muhammad’s migration to Medina, peaceful co-existence, positivity as a value in a Muslim’s life and the effects of positive participation in building society.
Positivity means “individual’s feeling of responsibility and active participation in society… and this positivity requires the individual to participate in building his nation and to vote for those whom he believes are capable to serve the nation, and not to fail [in doing this role] under any pretext.”
The sermon text, available on Awqaf’s website, also highlighted that it is forbidden “to buy, sell or bargain for ” votes.
In a Saturday statement, the presidency called on all Egyptian voters to “actively participate in the polling process at all stages of the parliamentary elections, and contribute in building a better future for Egypt in the context of societal consensus and upholding the value of the nation.”
A total of 27 million Egyptians are eligible to cast their votes in the first phase of the parliament elections, which are due to convene Oct. 18 in Egypt, according to the High Elections Commission (HEC.)