CAIRO — On the first day of Eid al-Adha, on Oct. 4, social networking sites in Egypt saw angry comments and cynical jokes about Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb and Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim, who cut short their pilgrimage to Mecca by abruptly returning to Cairo on Oct. 4, to perform Eid al-Adha prayers with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The wave of ridicule waged by activists on social media was accompanied by another wave of controversy about Mehleb and Ibrahim violating the duties of hajj by only performing some of the required rituals.

Al-Azhar University expressed its opinion concerning the Egyptian government officials, saying that their pilgrimage was indeed truthful and that the rituals they had not completed were not required. Mehleb and Ibrahim ignored their hajj duties of the stoning of the devil and performing Tawaf al-Ifadah, which consists of circumambulating the holy Kaaba in Mecca after praying on Mount Arafat.

However, the Egyptian Cabinet tried in various ways to defend Mehleb's position to the Egyptian public and declared him innocent of committing a sin by leaving Mecca before completion of all rituals, to ensure his popularity among the Egyptian masses. The Cabinet’s official spokesman, Hossam al-Qawish, appeared on various popular Egyptian television programs, stating that Mehleb had fully completed his hajj duty, and that he had delegated one of his relatives to complete the duty of throwing stones at the devil on the first day of Eid before returning to Cairo, which is legally allowed.