Egypt’s Salafi MP calls to prayer in parliament

A video showing Salafi member of the Egyptian parliament Mamdouh Ismail surprising fellow MPs on Tuesday by standing up from his bench and calling to prayer during a parliament session went viral on social networks. Ismail was ordered to “stop talking and remain quiet” by the Speaker after he loudly recited the Azan, the Muslim call to prayer, while ministers were in session. He was told off with angry remarks from Speaker of the People’s Assembly Saad Al-Katany: “There is a mosque outside for you to go and recite the Azan in and pray in if you want. “This room is for discussion only. You are not more religious than us nor are you more vigilant over prayer than us,” Katany who belong to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood party, Freedom and Justice Party FJP added. Ismail received his comments with further protests, but the Speaker retaliated with: “Do you need media attention? You are a respectable lawyer, do you really need it?" “I will not permit you to talk [in the session] again. Sit down,” he then ordered Ismail, to which the Salafi complied after a few angry gestures. Ismail's microphone was then silenced and he was no longer consulted for the remaining part of the session. Ismail said that he gave the call to prayer because it was the time of the Asr, or afternoon, prayer. “We are not in the Vatican, this is a Muslim country, we need to pray on time,” Ismail said after the session. Muslims pray five times a day at set times throughout, in observance to an obligatory pillar of Islam. Ismail said that politicians had been missing out on many prayers during the parliamentary sessions and that this should be avoided in the future. “I had asked the Speaker several times to organise the parliamentary sessions around prayer times, so that we do not miss them. The Speaker agreed and said he would take action, but he never followed it through,” Ismail said. “His reply to me was like that of a dictator, even though he was in the wrong.” Freedom and Justice Party MP Al-Sayed Askar commented on Ismail action by saying, during the time of the Prophet, that Muslims should combine the Thuhr and Asr prayers when necessary. Meanwhile, Egypt’s Islamist Presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail commented on the incident saying: “It was a great opportunity to revive the Prophet Sunnah and halt the session for pray.” Nearly one quarter of the new parliamentary representatives come from the ultra-conservative Salafi movement that follows a strict interpretation of Islam. The alliance led by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party took about 47 per cent of the seats. The Egyptian parliament was recently elected in the first votes after the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak last year following the popular uprising.