RAMADAN sermons are to be restricted to topics of faith and morality, Egypt's religious affairs minister said today. 

Mohammed Mokhtar Gomaa explained that the decision should ensure that sermons during Islam’s 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 Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

“Religious speech was politically driven, which affected the moral side. Now we’re in a race against time trying to restore morals,” he said on the first day of the observance.

The measure is the latest attempt by the state to control religious speech following last year’s overthrow of president Morsi and subsequent banning of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been declared a terrorist organisation.

The ministry had already restricted preaching in mosques to state-authorised clerics.

A Cairo appeal court set July 22 yesterday as the retrial date of prominent activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah.