No objection to relocating mosques: Min.

CAIRO – 20 August 2019: The Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) affirmed on Tuesday that there is no objection to relocating a mosque or a shrine to serve the public interest.

According to a statement issued by the ministry, the ministry's current efforts to relocate, renovate, and maintain the houses of Allah are extensive and unprecedented history of the ministry.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Endowments announced discussing ways to counter extremism and spread true religion to protect the youth and society from destructive ideas with the ministries of culture, education, and youth and sports.

Executive Agencies in Alexandria enforced early on Monday, Aug. 19, a decree to demolish Sidi AboulIkhlas Al-Zorkany Mosque, located in the pathway of a road that is still under construction.

Sidi AboulIkhlas Al-Zorkany Mosque housed a shrine that has been relocated temporarily to the Mosques Square in Alexandria. The square contains many shrines like Al-Morsy Aboul Abbas, Sidi Yacout, and Al-Abasiry.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi brought up the matter on Saturday while inaugurating 1,302 greenhouses in Mohamed Naguib Military Base as officials were presenting the projects that are still underway.

The president highlighted that places of worship shall not be built upon state-owned land without a license as that may negatively affect the public interest. “A place of worship deserves a prime location granted by the state,” the president asserted.

Sidi AboulIkhlas Al-Zorkany Mosque was built in 1985, six years after the death of Sheikh Borhan El-Din Bin Ahmed Bin Mohamed Ali Bin Mohamed Al-Zorkany, founder of the Supreme Ikhlasiyah Sufi movement, moving his body from a tiny mosque elsewhere.

The latest figure released by the Ministry of Culture in 2015 on the number of shrines in Egypt is 6,000.