morality, the state's top official in charge of religious affairs said on Sunday, in the latest move limiting political speech in the deeply polarised country.Mohammed Mokhtar Gomaa said the decision should ensure that sermons during holy month of fasting "unite people, not divide them," compared to what he described as a more politicised past when the country was run by an Islamist president.
"The religious speech was politically driven, which affected the moral side," he told reporters at a news conference on the first day of the observance. "Now we're in a race against time trying to restore morals."
Pious Muslims spend longer times at the mosques during the month, which they devote to prayer, charity and good deeds.