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31. In the period under review, the dispute over the position of supreme sheikh of the Sufi orders continued. The conflict began with the death of Sheikh Ahmed Kamel Yassin, the head of the Descendants of the Prophet Association, the head sheikh of Sufi orders and the sheikh of the al-Rifaiya Sufi order on 21 November 2008, approximately five months after he was appointed to the post (see paragraph 25 of the Third Quarterly Report, 2008). After the Supreme Council of Sufi Orders nominated al-Sayyid Abd al-Hadi al-Qasabi for the post in January 2009, Mohamed Ala al-Din Madi Abu al-Azayim, the sheikh of the al-Azamiya Sufi order, filed a suit (no. 9589 / 63) with the Court of Administrative Justice, which began hearing the petition on 4 January 2009. The plaintiff asked that Abd al-Hadi al-Qasabi’s nomination be rejected and that 11 Sufi orders be abolished and their headquarters closed on the grounds that they are not registered as required by law.
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