The Azhar on Monday (June 20, 2011) issued a paper on the future of Egypt during the coming phase, asserting the importance of establishing a "modern, democratic, constitutional and national state" that would guarantee the equality among all citizens in rights and duties.

Grand Shaykh of the Azhar Ahmad al-Tayīb said that the legislations, civilization or history of Islam had not known a theocracy or religious state.

"The Azhar Document was approved by a cohort of Egyptian intellectuals of different orientations as well as a number of Azhar scholars," Tayīb noted during a press conference.