| Intro | Egyptian theologian and politician |
| Is |
Politician Theologian |
| From | Egypt |
| Type |
Religion Politics |
| Gender | male |
Talaat Mohamed Afifi Salem is the Egypt’s former minister of religious endowments (Awqaf) and was part of the Qandil cabinet. He is also a professor at Al Azhar University and a member of a Salafi charitable organization.
Career and views
Afifi was the dean of the faculty of preaching at Al Azhar University. He also served the deputy head of the Islamic Legal Body for Rights and Reform, comprising more than a hundred of Egypt’s leading Islamist scholars and activists.
He was appointed minister of religious endowments (Awqaf) on 2 August 2012, replacing Mohamed Abdel Fadil. He was one of the independent members in the cabinet. However, Omar Ashour from the Brooklyn Institute states that Afifi was one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s allies in the cabinet. Afifi’s term ended on 16 July 2013.
Views
In an interview aired on Sada Al Balad TV on 14 March 2013, Afifi stated (as translated by MEMRI): “We hope that the words of the Prophet Muhammad will be fulfilled: ‘Judgment Day will not come before the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Jews will hide behind the rocks and the trees, but the rocks and the trees will say: O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him – except for the gharqad tree, which is one of the trees of the Jews.’ We fully believe that the future of this land lies with Islam and the Muslims.”