Lead:
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday attended the graduation ceremony of the third cohort of Ministry of Endowments imams — designated the "Imam Hasan al-Attar" batch — at the Egyptian Military Academy in the New Administrative Capital. The event marked the completion of a structured religious and academic qualification programme for 259 preachers, with the president issuing directives that signal a deepening institutional investment in Egypt's religious outreach sector.
Details:
According to El-Balad and El-Fagr, President al-Sisi congratulated the top ten graduates of the third cohort and directed the relevant authorities to support their continued academic advancement, including facilitating postgraduate studies up to the doctoral level. He further indicated that the state is studying the possibility of dispatching distinguished imams on educational missions abroad, with the stated aim of broadening their scholarly horizons and producing credible religious role models for Egyptian youth.
El-Fagr reported that the president also inaugurated the Safwa Hall at the Egyptian Military Academy on the sidelines of the ceremony, and viewed a documentary film on the nineteenth-century Egyptian scholar Rifaa Rafi al-Tahtawi, produced by an artificial intelligence team within the Ministry of Endowments. The choice of al-Tahtawi as a subject was widely read as underscoring the state's emphasis on Enlightenment-oriented Islamic discourse.
Minister of Endowments Dr. Ossama al-Azhari described the graduation of the "Imam Hasan al-Attar" batch as embodying the state's broader vision for human development and the cultivation of an enlightened religious message. The ministry's official spokesperson, Dr. Ossama Raslan, added that the ceremony, held under presidential patronage at a military institution, reflected the state's commitment to building public awareness through a structured and disciplined religious vocation. Member of Parliament Tariq al-Muhammadi, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives Religious Affairs and Endowments Committee, praised the president's attendance as evidence of sustained official interest in what he termed "enlightened da'wa."
On the legislative front, El-Fagr and Newsd report that the Senate, chaired by Counsellor Issam al-Din Farid, is scheduled to convene Monday and Tuesday to discuss mechanisms for localising pharmaceutical manufacturing in Egypt, alongside broader industrial deepening files — providing a parallel institutional thread to the state's week-long domestic policy agenda.
Watch For:
Whether formal scholarship programmes for top-ranked imams are announced through official ministerial or presidential decrees in the coming weeks, detailing destination countries and academic disciplines.
How the Senate's upcoming pharmaceutical localisation discussions translate into legislative or regulatory measures, particularly given Egypt's stated strategic interest in reducing dependence on imported medicines.
Whether the AI-produced documentary on al-Tahtawi signals a wider Ministry of Endowments initiative to deploy emerging technologies in religious education and public outreach, and how that initiative may be institutionalised.