Egypt's Al-Azhar University denies appointment of Muslim brotherhood teachers

The Cairo-based Al-Azhar University has denied media reports released by one of its professors over the appointment of 6,000 teaching assistants whom belong to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The university’s media centre said in an official statement today that those teachers were not appointed during the Brotherhood’s rule and that they had been appointed during the transitional period, following the 2013 military coup, stressing that the appointment was approved by the university’s president at the time, Sheikh Osama Al-Abd.

Commenting on the teachers’ relation to the Muslim Brotherhood group, the university described the allegations as a “slander,” arguing that some of them are currently working for the Egyptian Justice Ministry.

The statement also noted to decision made by the Egyptian former Prime Minister, Essam Sharaf, to appoint the university’s top graduates of the period from 2002- 2010, whom were not hired in academia at the time.

The government recently issued a decision of appointing all universities’ top graduates in academia and research, in response to several demands by Egyptians.

Al-Azhar’s media centre stressed that the university does not accept to any distortion to Al-Azhar academic curriculum by any of its students, warning to take necessary legal procedures.