Permission to buy 2 bottles of milk, 1 bottle of oil Why are questions being raised about mosques in this country facing economic crisis?

Standing on his balcony in the Al-Kubbah district of the Egyptian capital Cairo, 20-year-old Mahmoud Abdo can hear the call to prayer from at least five different mosques. Amid Egypt’s dire economic situation, isn’t Abdo convinced that the exorbitant spending on all these religious centers is necessary? In this regard, he told foreign news portal Al-Monitor, “We used to hear people saying in the past that the money needed for (poor) families should not be spent on mosques. Instead, most mosques have There will be boxes to receive donations for mosque development or other charitable works. However, in November last year Egypt’s Ministry of Religious Endowments scrapped the system with donation boxes. Instead it stipulated that donations be made directly to mosques through bank transfers. Donations must be made to the accounts. In September 2020, Egypt’s Endowments Minister Mohamed Mukhtar Gomaa revealed in a televised interview that the number of mosques across Egypt had exceeded 140,000, including 100,000 large mosques.

Let us tell you that inflation is at its peak these days in Egypt facing economic crisis. Food has become so expensive in Egypt that people are only allowed to buy three sacks of rice, two bottles of milk and one bottle of oil. Amidst the economic crisis and lack of basic facilities, thousands of new mosques have been built by Egypt’s religious ministry during the tenure of President Abdul Fateh al-Sisi, beyond the needs of education and health care. Last month, the Ministry of Religious Endowments announced that 9,600 mosques have been built or renovated at a cost of 10.2 billion Egyptian pounds (about $404 million) since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took office in 2013. People are raising questions on this decision of the government. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, run by the Egyptian government, the inflation rate in the country had increased to 6.2% in November 2022 as compared to November 2021.

Mohamed Ali, 60, from Cairo’s Maadi district is frustrated by the lack of people going to the mosque for the five daily prayers, despite the large number of mosques in his neighbourhood. Speaking to Al-Monitor, a news portal that covers Middle East countries, he says that mosques in my area are usually only full for Friday prayers and during the month of Ramadan. But the rest of the time, the number of people attending prayers in mosques is very less. Ali said he wanted mosques to be filled with worshippers, especially given the high number of mosques in residential areas and stressed the importance of building more mosques.