“Al-Azhar University granted an honorary doctorate degree to the King of Saudi Arabia as a tribute to his efforts to support Egypt and for serving Islamic Dawa , head of Al-Azhar University Osama el-Abd told Youm7 Wednesday. The board of directors of al-Azhar University is seeking an appropriate way to deliver the degree to the king, Youm7 added. King Abdullah Ben Abdel Aziz supported the 30th of June revolution………..”
Al-Azhar University in Egypt has decided to bestow a degree of honorary doctorate on Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz for “his sincere efforts in the service of Islam and Muslims and his brave patriotic stance with Egypt and her people”. The president of Al Azhar University said the board has authorized him “personally” to travel to the Saudi kingdom soon to present the doctorate to the king.
It did not say if he will discuss with the Saudi king his dissertation or if he will administer his written qualifying exams or the orals. Assuming his majesty has already taken his Graduate Record Exams (GRE) long before he earned his doctorate from Generalissimo Field Marshal A. Al Sisi. The Al Azhar statement did not add that his majesty is also being rewarded for encouraging democracy and freedom in Bahrain and the Gulf and for financing and arming the Wahhabi bombing campaigns for free speech and religious tolerance in Syria and Iraq and Lebanon and for his role in keeping the people of Gaza under siege and a target of Israeli bombs.
I suspect this will now open the floodgates for copycats across the region. Other colleges and universities across the Arabian Peninsula and Lebanon and Jordan and Egypt will shower his majesty with honorary, and a few regular, doctorates. The King Doctor Custodian will soon have a resume that is the envy of a whole faculty of a college. He may just get the Nobel Prize for Academic Degrees by default.
P.S.: One of my sources claims that Al Azhar is mulling changing its name to Al Sisi University. Personally, I think it is probably too soon. What if the imprisoned president Morsi managed to do a “Napoleon from Elba” number instead of a “Napoleon in Saint Helena” number planned for him by the generals and their Saudi and Abu Dhabi allies? What if he managed to bust out of his military prison in which the generals and the Persian Gulf princes want him to spend the rest of his life?
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum