Recently, several police officers in Egypt requested permission to wear beards, with some growing them before obtaining a response. The police authorities responded to the requests by launching an investigation against the officers and even suspending some of them from service, on the grounds that they had violated the regulations of the Interior Ministry, to which the police force is subordinate. In their defense, the officers said that growing a beard did no harm to anyone and was part of their individual rights. They added that the decision to penalize them for their request was arbitrary and contrary to Egypt's religious discrimination law. Some of the officers insisted that their request was backed by a 1981 fatwa by former Al-Azhar sheikh Gad Al-Haqq, according to which soldiers must not be forced to shave their beards, as this contravenes the shari'a and Article Two of the Egyptian constitution, which specifies Islam as the state religion.[1]
The police officers involved in the affair launched a Facebook group called "I Am a Bearded Police Officer." The group's page charges that the police regulation requiring officers to shave daily is unjust as well as contrary to Islam and the shari'a.
The Facebook group "I Am a Bearded Police Officer"
A spokesman from the Facebook group said that some 300 police officers had requested permission to grow beards, and that the matter would be decided not by the Interior Ministry but by Al-Azhar, as the institution responsible for issuing fatwas. One of the suspended officers explained that a request for permission to grow beards had been submitted to the Interior Ministry in February 2011, but that the ministry had not responded, which, according to the officer, meant that it had no objections.[2]
Egyptian Interior Minister Muhammad Ibrahim said that any police officer who grew a beard would be brought before a disciplinary committee and that legal steps would be taken against him, including suspension from service. He said his ministry had consulted Egyptian clerics on the matter, who had ruled that growing a beard is a custom ('adda) rather than a religiously recommended practice (sunna), while police regulations obligated police officers to maintain a respectable, clean-shaven appearance.[3]
Columnists: Outward Religious Expressions Must Not Be Allowed in the Military
Responding to the affair, 'Adel Al-Sanhouri, a columnist for the daily Al-Yawm Al-Sabi', wrote: "Some police officers consider growing their beard a more worthy and useful cause than investing dedicated efforts in restoring security and stability... They have kept the people preoccupied with the issue of beards to the point where it has became a public issue that has forced the Interior Ministry to turn to Dar Al-Ifta [the official body responsible for issuing fatwas in the country, under the authority of Egypt's mufti] in order to determine what the police regulation on this matter [should] be.
"Many people expressed rage that [this] issue was raised in the police force, and Dar Al-Ifta [itself] expressed intense disapproval of the debate that broke out over the law on growing beards, demanding, as we have demanded in the past, that the police force adhere to its usual regulations and traditions... It is inconceivable that, at the present difficult time, the question of growing a beard should become a public issue and consume social efforts that should be invested in the security, building, and development which society currently needs. [Dar Al-Ifta's] fatwa is clear and decisive. We must adhere to it, so we can free ourselves [to address] more important issues..."[4]
Writing in the daily Al-Shurouq, journalist 'Atef Hassanain stated: "If we support [Muslim] officers growing a beard, the Church will support [Christian] officers wearing a cross. If only it ended there – but it is likely to drag us into [religious] fanaticism, and cause [officers] to be loyal to their religion rather than to the homeland. Military activity [is governed by] laws intended to benefit the homeland rather than any [specific] party.
"Do not politicize the Egyptian army, which will divide it into factions and groups. It is the army of Egypt, not the army of the Muslim Brotherhood or the Salafis. [It is the army of] Egypt, meaning Muslims and Christians alike, and anyone else who entrusts himself to [the protection of the state]. The place for religious [sentiment] is in the heart. It takes expression in strict morals, kind words, and good deeds. We would be wise to avoid outward expressions of religious [affiliation] in the military apparatuses..."[5]
Yassin Sa'id, a columnist for the daily Al-Yawm Al-Sabi', wrote: "The issue of the hour is the request by police officers to grow beards, on the grounds of individual freedom. I object to this use of the term 'individual freedom.' These officers are part of a [para]military apparatus, which has regulations that are binding for all its members, such as shaving one's beard and [cutting] one's hair, polishing one's shoes, and pressing one's uniform – in a manner respectful of one's appearance as a serviceman. These officers were well aware of these regulations when they joined the force... [This para]military institution, like all institutions, has regulations that all those who join it must obey... and whoever violates these regulations must leave..."[6]
Religious Establishment, Muslim Brotherhood: Growing a Beard Is Not a Religious Obligation in Islam
The Interior Ministry enjoyed reserved support for its stance on the issue of bearded policemen from Egypt's religious establishment. Responding to a query from the ministry, Dar Al-Ifta ruled on the one hand that all Interior Ministry employees must abide by the accepted regulations of their workplace, because the issue of growing a beard is a matter of longstanding dispute among various Islamic scholars and different religious schools. On the other hand, Dar Al-Ifta condemned the widespread attention the issue has received, saying Egypt's energies should be directed instead toward building and developing the country. Issuing its response to the Interior Ministry, Dar Al-Ifta advised it to review its directives on the issue and draft agreed-upon principles satisfactory to all sides that would resolve the affair.[7]
Elements in Al-Azhar claimed that the debate on this matter was a waste of time because, considering the controversy over the issue of beards, it had already been settled that a Muslim could not be punished for being clean-shaven. Sheikh 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Atrash, a former chairman of the Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee, stated that police officers must keep a respectable appearance in maintaining public security.[8] Muhammad 'Uthman, a member of the Al-Azhar Academy of Islamic Research, explained that wearing a beard was a social custom and not an obligation, and that anyone working in a given institution must honor its regulations, rather than attempt to force his own religious views on that institution or on society at large.[9]
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The Muslim Brotherhood passively backed the Interior Ministry's stance, by refraining from expressing open support for either the police officers' request or the interior minister, and generally avoided the issue. Muhammad Al-Biltagi, secretary-general of the MB party in Cairo and a member of the People's Council, said that, at the present time, the Interior Ministry should focus on purging itself of the corrupt officials remaining from the era of former interior minister Habib Al-'Adli, rather than on the issue of wearing beards, which in any case is not a clear-cut religious obligation. Al-Biltagi noted that, though many had criticized him for his stance on the issue, he believed that there were more important and pressing matters for Egypt to deal with at the moment.[10]
Salafi Senior Officials: To Wear a Beard Is To Follow in the Prophet's Path
In contrast, Egypt's Salafi stream supported the police officers who requested to grow beards, while condemning the Interior Ministry's handling of the issue. Nader Bakar, spokesman for the Salafi Al-Nour party, called on Egypt's interior minister to drop the issue of police officers' beards and, instead, to take action against police officers who abused their power and spent their work hours smoking cigarettes, instead of doing their duty. He said that the decision to investigate the bearded officers had been groundless and arbitrary, and stressed that there was no law that prevented the officers from growing a beard.[11]
Al-Nour supreme committee member Bassam Al-Zarqa expressed support for the bearded police officers. He claimed that they should be allowed to return to their jobs without being required to shave their beards, which did not interfere with their work, and said there was a conspiracy to defame anyone who wished to implement the sunna.[12] Osama Suleiman, a member of the Salafi Egyptian movement Ansar Al-Sunna, said that adherence to Islam did not preclude maintaining law and order in the country, and claimed that the Interior Ministry's extremism in handling the beard issue was the result of foreign influences going back to the days of the British occupation.[13]
Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya condemned the interior minister's statements to the effect that wearing a beard was 'adda rather than sunna. It said that as long as the beard did not interfere with an officer's job performance, , he had the right to choose whether or not to grow one.[14]
Salafi Sheikh Muhammad Hassan said that police officers had the right to wear beards in emulation of the Prophet Muhammad, and called on the interior minister to allow them to do so, so long as it did not violate any law. He too cited former Al-Azhar Sheikh Gad Al-Haqq's fatwa according to which members of the military could not be forced to shave their beards.[15] Salafi Sheikh Mustafa Al-'Adawi noted that the Prophet and his Companions had beards, and said that the pronouncements of ministers and muftis could never outweigh the pronouncements of the Koran and the Prophet's sunna. He claimed that instead of abiding by laws imported from infidel lands, Egypt's senior officials should follow the example of the Prophet, including by growing a beard themselves, and thereby setting an example for others.[16]
Columnist in Islamist Daily: Interior Ministry's Arguments Against Police Officers Growing Beards Are An Insult To the Prophet Muhammad
Mahmoud Rawzan, columnist for the Islamist daily Al-Misriyoun, wrote that the interior minister's arguments against growing a beard in the police force were an insult to the Prophet Muhammad: "The crisis over the officers [in the police force, which is subject to] the Interior Ministry, exposed the upside-down value system of the Egyptian mentality in general, and the political and media mentality in particular. The interior minister retired [police] officers on the claim that a beard mars [their] appearance... Perhaps the honorable minister forgot or turned a blind eye to the fact that, with this bizarre claim, he has offended every bearded [person], first and foremost the master of the bearded [i.e. the Prophet Muhammad], peace be upon him, by accusing him of poor appearance...
"Some of the members of the media and the crooked commentators claim that these officers want to keep us preoccupied with questions that are marginal compared to the question of the cultural path the nation [is to take]. We did not see them raising such an outcry when one [of their colleagues] demanded rights for the homosexuals and nudists, as if the entire nation were homosexuals and nudists. On the contrary, we saw them arrogantly and wantonly defending [the homosexuals and nudists], as if this were the most important battle, by winning which they would write the most important page in Egypt's cultural [history]. They should have voiced [such] criticism over the childish and inexcusable obstinacy of the interior minister and his companions, considering that he exploited the issue [of the police officers' beards] in turning many of those who were angry with him over the raid on Port Sa'id into his supporters in the fateful battle over the beards..."[17]
[1] Al-Ahram (Egypt), February 23, 2012.
[2] Al-Misriyoun (Egypt), February 22, 2012.
[3] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), February 21, 2012.
[4] Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' (Egypt), February 23, 2012.
[5] Al-Shurouq (Egypt), February 20, 2012.
[6] Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' (Egypt), February 26, 2012.
[7] Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' (Egypt), February 22, 2012.
[8] Alarabiya.net, February 19, 2012.
[9] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), February 28, 2012.
[10] Al-Shurouq (Egypt), February 23, 2012.
[11] Al-Dustour (Egypt), February 24, 2012.
[12] Al-Tahrir (Egypt), February 22, 2012.
[13] Islamonline.net, February 20, 2012.
[14] Al-Ahram (Egypt), February 22, 2012.
[15] Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' (Egypt), February 21, 2012.
[16] Youtube.com, February 26, 2012.
[17] Al-Misriyoun (Egypt), March 11, 2012.
