Palestinian children shout slogans and hold the Egypt flag during a rally in front of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip on June 21, 2011, demanding it to be open permanently and without restrictions or conditions on the passengers.SAID KHATIB/AFP / Getty Images
The rector of what is arguably the world's oldest university, a bastion of Sunni scholarship with international influence, has come out in favour of a modern, democratic, constitutional Egyptian state, though there may be some trouble in the fine print.
Ahmed el-Tayyeb, the grand sheik of Al-Azhar University in Cairo (founded by an Ismaili caliph in 975), together with his colleagues, denies that Islam permits a "priesthood state" - an implied criticism of Iran. Their document is not apolitical, however; it endorses the separation of powers and equal rights for all citizens.
On the other hand, it says that the principles of sharia should be the basic source of law. But at least this is not new; since 1981, the Constitution of Egypt, under an ostensibly secularist regime on the Kemal Ataturk model, has a clause saying the same thing. For some reason, perhaps in an attempt to compete with the Muslim Brotherhood, Anwar Sadat added a mild version of this clause in 1971; Hosni Mubarak took it further in 1981.
The Al-Azhar document is, however, based on the work of a broad range of scholars and activists, including Coptic Christians, several of whom signed it. The paper says that Christians and Jews should be free to govern their own lives with guidance from their own authorities.
There has been much speculation - and worry - about the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt's future. This renewed self-assertion by the traditional Islamic religious authorities - jurists - may slowly alter the position of the highly political Brotherhood.
Undoubtedly, there is a large degree of self-interest in the Al-Azhar paper, which calls for the emancipation of the university from the state. But this is welcome, too; civil society, weak in Egypt, will grow from the rise of autonomous institutions - particularly those of higher learning.
Liberal democracy in Egypt will eventually require the removal of the privileged constitutional status of religious jurisprudence. In the meantime, the millennium-old Al-Azhar has done good service to Egypt, and the rest of the Arab and Muslim world, by its adherence to modern political principles.