The comments came at a time of renewed fears in Egypt of Iranian efforts to promote Shiism in the country that has only a handful of Shia adherents.
Ahmed at-Tayyeb, the imam of the Sunni al-Azhar institute, met with the Iranian envoy a day after scholars from al-Azhar and Egyptian Islamist groups issued a statement condemning what they said were Iranian attempts to spread Shiism in Egypt.
Shiism is dominant in Iraq and Lebanon as well as Iran, and the rise to power in those countries of Shiite political leaders has been a source of much concern in majority Sunni Arab countries like Egypt.
Tayyeb told the Iranian envoy that al-Azhar “rejected any hossainiyehs in Egypt because of their negative effects destabilizing the country and fracturing unity and weakening the national fabric,” Al-Azhar said in a statement.
Hossainiyehs are Shiite prayer houses.
Sunnis have traditionally opposed Shiism, which teaches that many of the Prophet Mohammed’s companions revered by Sunnis were corrupt and usurped power from his rightful successor and cousin, Ali.
Mahmoud Azab, Tayyeb’s adviser on dialogue with Shiism, told Agence France Presse (AFP), “We are not against Shiism. They can do whatever they want in their countries, but if we are to draw closer to them, we don’t want to hear insults against the companions.”
Over the past decades, al-Azhar has tried to promote a measure of reconciliation between the two streams of Islam, for example, by recognizing Shiite jurisprudence as legitimate.
But the sect remains taboo in Egypt, partly because of its association with Iran.
In a debate ahead of last week’s presidential election, one Islamist candidate, who came in third, Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, said Shiism must not be allowed to enter Egypt, while another candidate has been forced to battle rumors that he secretly embraced Shiism.
Azab told AFP that Tayyeb’s statements were prompted by reports of a hossainiyeh in a Cairo suburb that has an Iraqi expatriate community.
“It is reported — almost confirmed — that there was a hossainiyeh in the [city of] October 6th and the people were unhappy about it,” he said.
Al-Arabiyya television quoted sources as saying the Egyptian authorities shut down the hossainiyeh, which was reportedly opened by Lebanese Shiite cleric Ali al-Qorani during his recent visit to Cairo.