Leader Of Al-Azhar Proposes Bill Of Rights

CAIRO (AP) — The leader of Al-Azhar, the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world, has put forward a Bill of Rights to uphold freedom of expression and belief ahead of the drafting of Egypt’s new constitution.

The document released Tuesday is a bid by the prestigious religious institute to assert its role as the voice of moderate Islam in the face of growing political power of more conservative Islamic groups in Egypt following the February ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb told reporters Islamic rulings protect freedom of religion and guarantee equal citizenship rights, in a message to Egypt’s increasingly nervous Christian minorities. El-Tayeb wants the bill to be part of the new constitution. The newly elected parliament, controlled by Islamists, will determine who writes the constitution.