Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam is the 19th and current Grand Mufti of Egypt through Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, educational institute founded to represent Islam and a center for Islamic legal research. He received his PhD in 1996 from the Al-Azhar University in Jurisprudence and Sharia law. Prior to his appointment, he served as the chairman of the Department of Jurisprudence at the School of Sharia at Al-Azhar University’s Tanta branch.