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The Syrian Ministry of Endowments began requiring imams and preachers of mosques to sign a “pledge of commitment to the Charter of the Unity of Islamic Speech,” as part of measures that the Ministry said were aimed at controlling religious discourse and promoting “centrism and moderation” within mosques.
Last March, Enab Baladi devoted a comprehensive file on the “Unity of Islamic Discourse” charter, and the extent of its ability to protect civil peace. Through it, it discussed the most prominent provisions of the charter, as well as the circumstances that led to its establishment, reviewing the religious situation in Syria before, during, and after the Syrian revolution, and the changes that occurred in it.
Enab Baladi also discussed with experts and specialists the issue of the impact of the current religious discourse on civil peace in Syria, and the challenges of reaching a formula of religious moderation, especially after the bloody incidents of violence that the country witnessed on the Syrian coast and southern Syria.
Binding decision: Renouncing division and sectarian differences
According to the text of the pledge issued by the Damascus Countryside Endowments Directorate in the Syrian Ministry of Endowments, a copy of which was obtained by Enab Baladi, the signing imam or preacher acknowledges that he has reviewed the entire charter, and is committed to all of its provisions, including “renouncing division and sectarian differences,” respecting “established religious authorities,” and working to “unify the word of Muslims.”
The pledge includes a commitment not to use “religious status for school or sectarian purposes,” and to preserve “the sanctity of mosques,” in addition to deleting any previous publications that violate the content of the charter, and not publishing any content that violates it through social media.
The pledge also stipulated that violating the provisions of the Charter may expose the imam or preacher to “judicial and administrative accountability.”
Imams and preachers are required to formally sign the pledge, noting the name, date, religious status, and mosque to which it belongs.
A pledge to adhere to the Charter of the Unity of Islamic Discourse distributed by the Syrian Ministry of Endowments through its directorates to imams and preachers of mosques to sign it and adhere to its content (Enab Baladi)
The years of the revolution produced “extremist discourses”
In light of the transformations that Syria is experiencing after years of war and division, widespread talk has emerged about the “Religious Discourse Charter,” which the Ministry of Endowments is working on, with the aim of controlling religious platforms and limiting inflammatory and sectarian speeches.
An official in the ministry, who preferred to remain anonymous, explained the backgrounds of the charter, the motives that led to its formulation, in addition to the mechanisms for its implementation and the messages that the ministry seeks to deliver to Syrian society.
The official said that the primary motivation for preparing the charter was “the state of sharp division that Syrian society witnessed during the years of the revolution, and the accompanying emergence of sectarian, incitement, and seditionist discourses, even within some religiously committed circles.”
He added that the problem has particularly emerged among some newly committed young people, who deal with religion “with a mentality of impulsiveness and not gradualism,” explaining that “some want to implement all the rulings at once, and reject any room for diligence or multiple understandings, and always adhere to the strictest.”
He reminded of the necessity of commitment and obedience, according to the hadith of the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him: “This religion is solid, so delve into it gently, and do not hate the worship of God to yourself.”
According to the official, the expansion of the influence of social media, in addition to the political and military conditions that the country has experienced over the past 14 years, contributed to the perpetuation of these phenomena, which prompted the ministry to “establish a general framework that controls the religious compass and protects society from sliding toward strife.”
Some disagreements turned into disagreement and creativity
Regarding the reasons for accelerating work on the charter, the official explained that the ministry has monitored over the past years “multiple incidents” related to preachers, imams, teachers, and preachers on social media.
He pointed out that some of them “were not satisfied with making the violator wrong, but rather reached out to change and creativity, and sometimes treated their opinion as the only correct religion.”
He considered that this path is “very dangerous,” because it may begin with intellectual extremism and end with excommunication and bloodshed, adding that Syrian society “has witnessed during the last period examples of attacks on scientific schools and major imams in the Islamic heritage, such as Imam Yahya bin Sharaf al-Nawawi.”
Established references are a safety valve
Regarding what is meant by the phrase “respect for established religious authorities” mentioned in the charter, the official said that religious texts may support more than one understanding, but “not every understanding is considered correct or reliable,” explaining that the major schools of jurisprudence and science were not formed “by fleeting individual diligence,” but rather through “long centuries of refinement, scrutiny, and scientific criticism.”
He added: “When we talk about doctrines of jurisprudence, we are not talking about the opinion of one person, but rather about a scientific accumulation in which thousands of scholars participated over hundreds of years. They established the principles of the legal sciences and controlled their paths. Therefore, returning to established references represents protection for society from abnormal and extremist readings.”
For example, the official explained that the doctrine of Imam al-Shafi’i is not the ijtihad of Imam al-Shafi’i alone, but rather it is the result of the efforts of the imam, his disciples, and those who came after them during hundreds of years, during which the sayings were revised and the correct was distinguished from the abnormal.
The Friday pulpit is not a space for partisan propaganda
With regard to prohibiting the use of religious status for “school or sectarian” purposes, the official confirmed that the ministry differentiates between “public platforms” and “private platforms,” and said that the Friday sermon and public lessons in mosques “are platforms directed to all Syrians, and their function is to strengthen common interests and consolidate religious and moral values, not to promote a specific intellectual, political, or sectarian current.”
He added: “It is not permissible for the preacher to exploit the Friday pulpit to call for a specific doctrinal school, or a partisan or intellectual orientation, whether it is Ash’arite, Salafi, Brotherhood, or other.”
According to the official, private intellectual issues “have their own arenas and platforms,” while public religious discourse must remain inclusive and not divisive.”
Regarding the mechanisms for following up on the implementation of the Charter, the source explained that there are no “exceptional measures” as much as there is “reliance on community awareness and cooperation,” noting that the Ministry receives complaints from worshipers and citizens about some sermons or lessons that include inflammatory or sectarian speech.
He also pointed out the existence of specialized departments within the ministry, such as the departments of mosque affairs and educational circles, which are responsible for monitoring the performance of preachers, teachers, and preachers in various regions.
Even old posts are included
The official confirmed that the obligations contained in the Charter also include old posts on the personal accounts of preachers and preachers, indicating that some people “were committed not to repeat violations, but they left the old content published on their pages, and it continued to be circulated among people,” so emphasis was placed on addressing this content as well.
Regarding the procedures followed against violators, the official said that the Ministry adopts a gradual administrative path that begins with a verbal warning or a written warning, and may reach a temporary suspension from public speaking or teaching.
In some cases, the penalties may develop into “permanent termination of assignment or removal of religious status,” which means preventing the person from participating in any official religious activity.
However, if the violations include “defamation, slander, incitement, or electronic violations,” they may be referred to the competent judiciary through the Ministry’s Cases Department.
The charter is for all components without exception
In response to Enab Baladi’s question about the extent to which the charter is applicable to all components in Syria, the official stressed that the ministry views it as a “general framework directed to everyone,” and explained that the work on drafting it continued “long months,” with the aim of arriving at an applicable formula that enjoys the widest possible consensus.
He concluded his speech by stressing that Syria is going through “a sensitive stage that requires the public interest to prevail over partisan, sectarian, and intellectual differences.”
He said that the primary goal of the Charter is “to prevent strife and divisions that may hinder the construction of state institutions,” while stressing at the same time that the Charter “does not prevent criticism of obvious errors or expression of opinion.”
There is a difference between the jurisprudential differences that can be postponed or mitigated at this stage, and the clear mistakes that must be pointed out, the official said, and that what is needed today is a speech that unites Syrians, not a speech that reproduces divisions.
The “Unity of Islamic Discourse” Charter.. Will it succeed in protecting civil peace?
A call to regulate fatwas and organize platforms
Last February, the Ministry of Endowments announced the launch of a charter within the “Unity of Islamic Discourse” conference in the presence of hundreds of Islamic clerics and the Syrian President, Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
According to what was stated in the charter, it was the result of scientific and dialogue workshops between scientific and advocacy schools, in the presence of more than 1,500 Syrian Islamic scholars and clerics.
According to its definition, this charter is considered a comprehensive national contract for scholars and preachers from the Sunnis and the community in Syria, from their various schools, and aims to unify their word on public issues, under the umbrella of the Qur’anic verse “The believers are brothers, so make peace between your two brothers and fear God that you may receive mercy.”
Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Abdel Rahman Ibrahim, an imam, preacher and teacher in the mosques of Damascus and its countryside, believes that the “Unity of Islamic Discourse” conference represents a pivotal step in the context of reorganizing religious discourse in the country, after years of intellectual and social challenges that were reflected in religious platforms and institutions.
The importance of the conference is not limited to being a scientific meeting for preachers and preachers, but rather it lies in being an attempt to establish a comprehensive frame of reference that redirects religious discourse towards issues of society and the nation, according to Dr. Ibrahim.
The idea of unifying religious discourse is not something new in Islamic thought, according to Ibrahim, but rather has roots in the experiences of religious reform that appeared in different stages of Islamic history, when scholars sought to achieve basic foundations represented by:
- Fatwa control.
- Organizing platforms.
- Preventing chaos in religious discourse.
Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim said, in a previous interview with Enab Baladi, that the Syrian conference came in this context, based on a long scientific legacy in the schools of the Levant, which were historically known for “moderation and jurisprudential openness.”
Unifying the discourse… between the current need and historical experiences
Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Abdel Rahman Ibrahim considers that the call to unify Islamic discourse came in response to a realistic need imposed by the circumstances that Syria went through during the past years, where the sources of religious discourse were numerous and its messages varied at times, which called for, as he said, “the reorganization of this field within a clear scientific framework.”
The idea of unifying religious authority appeared in the history of the Islamic State at more than one stage, the most famous of which is organizing fatwas and the judiciary in the Abbasid and Ottoman eras, when there was a scientific authority that controlled fatwas and maintained the unity of society.
Ibrahim added that the books on Sharia policy among scholars, such as Imam Ibn Taymiyyah in his book “The Sharia Policy in Reforming the Shepherd and the Subjects,” and Imam Al-Mawardi in his book “The Sultanic Provisions,” talked about the importance of organizing religious affairs in a way that “achieves the interest of society and preserves stability.”
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The Syrian Endowments is rushing to implement the Religious Discourse Charter
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عالم الأسرة – The Syrian Endowments is rushing to implement the Religious Discourse Charter
المصدر : www.enabbaladi.net