Religion, Politics and Media in Egypt
Where should we draw the line between politics and religion? In
Egypt, especially after the 25th of January revolution we have witnessed
the expansion of a lot of religious channels. During previous decades
religious channels were only present for the sole purpose of spreading
awareness about religion related topics or discuss such topics with
religious experts or with people of such knowledge to address these
topics. However, after the revolution these channels have become a
medium to campaign and promote for certain political ideologies. Not
only this but they also encourage people to take
actions according to the ideas they spread. One
example of such cases is the “Islamist” channel
“Al Hafez”, which emerged during the rule of
Mohamed Morsi and was closed after the 30th of
June revolution. In this case, The Administrative Court ruled in favor of
shutting down Islamist channel Al-Hafez, along with other channels that
supported the Muslim Brotherhood and ousted president Mohamed Morsi,
and promoted for violence against Egyptians who oppose their political
parties and political views.
Such channels mix religion with politics and promoted aggressive ideas
in the name of religion. They take advantage of their “religious agenda”