President El-Sisi extends mandate of Shawky Allam as Grand Mufti of Egypt for 1 year

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued a decree extending the mandate of Shawky Allam as the Grand Mufti of Egypt for a year.

The Presidential decree was published in the official gazette, Al-Waqa’i’ al-Misriyya, on Sunday 13/8/2023, and will be effective on the following day.

Allam is the 19th and current grand mufti of Egypt. He was elected by the Al-Azhar’s Council of Senior Scholars in February 2013, replacing former Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa.

Allam was born in the Nile Delta governorate of Beheira on August 12, 1961. He received his PhD in 1996 from the Al-Azhar University in Jurisprudence and Sharia law.

The position of grand mufti is seen as very influential in Egypt, as well as throughout the Arab and Islamic world. His office is at Dar al-Ifta, an Egyptian Islamic advisory, justiciary and governmental body that offers Muslims religious guidance and advice through the issuing of fatwas on every day and contemporary issues.

As he issues fatwas (religious edicts) on different matters, the grand mufti is the government’s first and primary source of religious authority.

The person nominated to mufti chair must be under the age of 60 years old.