On April 4, 1964, the Masonic temple on Toussoun Street in Alexandria was officially closed by order of the Egyptian Ministry of Social Affairs. The formulation sounded mundane: “Associations with undeclared agendas were incompatible with rules covering non-profit organizations.” Behind these bureaucratic words lay the completion of a century-and-a-half history of one of the largest Masonic jurisdictions in the Middle East. However, the prohibition did not mean the instantaneous disappearance of all traces of Masonic presence in the land of the pharaohs.
At the moment of the ban, approximately fifty-four lodges were operating in Egypt. Between 1940 and 1957, eighteen Masonic halls functioned in Cairo, thirty-three in Alexandria, ten in Port Said, two in Mansoura, two in Ismailia, and one each in Fayoum, Mehalla al-Kobra, and Minieh. These figures speak to the scale of the organization that was supposed to disappear by governmental decree. Sufficiently disturbing evidence of state concern about Freemasonry’s political goals emerged the following year in Damascus when master spy Eli Cohen was apprehended. It was discovered that Cohen, who had eluded Syrian intelligence for many years while posing as an Arab, had been a Freemason in Egypt where he was born. This revelation provided additional grounds for authorities to suspect the international connections of Masonic organizations.
Despite the official declaration of Freemasonry’s demise in Egypt, loud cries of “not so” began to emerge as early as the 1980s. Abu Islam Ahmed Abdallah, in his book “Freemasonry in Our Region” published in 1985, asserted that Freemasonry was alive and thriving under the guise of Rotary Clubs and other similar associations. “Having accomplished their earlier mission to establish a Jewish state, Masonic conspirators now intend to undermine Islam using charity work and community outreach as their tools,” Abdallah wrote in his opening chapter. He devoted a substantial portion of his elusive research to equating the “new Masonic cancer” with Rotary and Lions organizations, as well as with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Freedom Now movement, Solar Tradition, New Age, and several other “fringe” organizations.
Islamic theologians supported these suspicions with official statements. In the 1970s, Egypt’s highest religious official issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims to join Rotary Clubs. In 1978, the Islamic Jurisprudential College of Al-Azhar University in Cairo issued an opinion on Freemasonry, describing it as “a clandestine organization, which conceals or reveals its system, depending on the circumstances. Its actual principles are hidden from members, except for chosen members of its higher degrees. The members of the organization, worldwide, are drawn from men without preference for their religion, faith, or sect. The organization attracts members on the basis of providing personal benefits. It traps men into being politically active, and its aims are unjust. New members participate in ceremonies of different names and symbols, and are too frightened to disobey its regulations and orders.”
However, among this stream of official statements and conspiracy theories, testimonies emerged that made one ponder the real state of affairs on the ground. In 1976, an American teacher visiting Egypt for six weeks as part of a group of educators from Iowa received an unexpected answer to his question about the fate of Egyptian Freemasonry. When he asked one of his hosts in Alexandria about why there were no Masons in Egypt, the man gave him the pass grip of a Master Mason and said, “Actually, I am one of those.” The Egyptian explained that because of the British affiliation, Nasser had outlawed Freemasonry and had the Brothers followed to make sure they no longer met. The American was left with the impression that Masonic temples still existed in some places but no one used them. The Egyptian people impressed him as warm, loving, and friendly people who accepted the American guests into their hearts and homes.
This personal testimony acquires particular significance in the context of information provided by recognized Masonic historians Kent Henderson and Tony Pope in their long out-of-print work “Freemasonry Universal.” According to their research, rumors persisted that a Grand Orient of Egypt still survived secretly or had survived at least as late as 1999, working in Egypt’s biggest cities. This information represents the only academic mention of the possible continuation of Masonic activity underground, coming from authoritative researchers of international Freemasonry.
Physical traces of Egyptian Freemasonry’s former grandeur gradually disappeared from the urban landscape, but some buildings continued to remind of the past. Former Masonic halls in Cairo were located in the Tiring Building on Attaba Square, in the Acher Building on Champollion Street where the Townhouse Gallery was subsequently housed, in the Freemasons Hall on Madrassa al-Fransawi Street in the Mounira district, and in a building at the corner of Antekhana and Mahmoud Bassiouni Streets. These places, once centers of intellectual and spiritual life, became mute witnesses to a bygone era.
Egyptian society’s attitude toward Freemasonry in the period after the ban was shaped by several factors. First, Freemasonry continued to be perceived as a Western phenomenon connected to the colonial past and alien to traditional Islamic culture. Second, conspiracy theories about Freemasonry’s connection to Zionism and international conspiracies gained wide circulation in Arabic literature. Third, alternative organizations such as Rotary and Lions Clubs were viewed by many as disguised forms of Masonic activity.
Rotary Clubs indeed often came under fire as “Freemasonry in sheep’s clothing.” These suspicions had certain historical foundations. Rotary was founded in 1905 during a period when Freemasonry was active in America. There are several clubs that intellectually and methodologically resemble Rotary: Lions, Kiwanis, Exchange, Round Table, Pen, and B’nai B’rith. These clubs work in the same way and for the same purposes with some slight modifications to create many means of spreading ideas and attracting supporters and followers. Mutual visits are exchanged among these clubs.
The connection between Rotary, Lions Clubs, and Freemasonry was not a fabrication of conspiracy theorists. Giordano Gamberini, former Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy, declared on page 5 of the February 1981 issue of the Masonic periodical “Hiram” that these two service societies were Masonic societies. Melvin Jones, founder of the Lions Club, was the Worshipful Master of Chicago’s Masonic Lodge “Garden City” No. 141. He later became Lions’ General Secretary and Treasurer and the editor of the Club’s magazine. The first Lions logo of 1918 even displayed the capital letter L, similar to the square symbol, and the compass, both of Masonic origin and interpretation.
By the end of the twentieth century, the situation with Freemasonry in Egypt had crystallized into a state of complete official absence. A contemporary tourist-Mason from Mexico planning a trip to Cairo in the 2010s discovered a complete absence of traces of active lodges in Egypt. A webpage existed but without any physical address, which made him wonder whether Freemasonry remained illegal. This episode illustrates the complete discretion of any possible Masonic activity in modern Egypt.
After 1999, when Henderson and Pope recorded the last rumors about the secret existence of the Grand Orient of Egypt, not a single reliable testimony about the continuation of Masonic activity in the country appeared. This may indicate the final cessation of even underground organized activity by the beginning of the twenty-first century. The political climate in Egypt did not favor the revival of Western esoteric traditions, especially those associated with the colonial past and international conspiracies.
Islamic opposition to Freemasonry in modern Egypt is systematic and deeply rooted. Freemasonry is viewed not simply as an alien religious practice, but as part of a broader Western conspiracy against Islamic values and Arab independence. Arabic literature circulates accusations that Freemasonry has branches under different names as camouflage, so people cannot trace its activities, especially if the name of Freemasonry has opposition. These hidden branches, according to conspiracy theories, include not only Rotary and Lions but also numerous other international organizations.
The religious dimension of anti-Masonic sentiments in Egypt is reinforced by eschatological motives. Many contemporary Islamic anti-Masonic arguments are closely tied to both antisemitism and anti-Zionism, though other reasons for Muslim anti-Masonry have been formulated, such as linking Freemasonry to conspiracy theories and Islamic eschatology, particularly to the eschatological figure of the Dajjal, the Islamic Antichrist. The Syrian-Egyptian Islamic theologian Muhammad Rashid Rida played a crucial role in leading the opposition to Freemasonry across the Muslim world in the early twentieth century. Through his popular pan-Islamic journal Al-Manar, Rida spread anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic ideas which directly influenced the Muslim Brotherhood and subsequent radical Islamic and Islamist movements.
In this context, any attempts to revive Freemasonry in Egypt face insurmountable obstacles. Even if individual Egyptians who received Masonic initiation abroad return to the country, they are forced to completely conceal their membership in the order. Social pressure, religious prohibitions, and potential legal consequences make open profession of Masonic principles practically impossible.
The modern Egyptian political system, regardless of the specific regime in power, maintains continuity in its attitude toward Freemasonry as an undesirable foreign influence. This attitude is reinforced not only by religious considerations but also by the desire to maintain national identity in opposition to Western cultural influences. Freemasonry symbolizes an era when foreign ideas and institutions dominated Egyptian society, and its revival would be perceived as a step backward toward colonial dependence.
Paradoxically, the memory of Egyptian Freemasonry is preserved mainly outside Egypt, in international Masonic organizations that practice Egyptian rites and study the history of Freemasonry in the land of the pharaohs. Within Egypt itself, this tradition has become a subject of historical interest and conspiracy speculation, but not living practice. Physical monuments to the Masonic past gradually disappear or are repurposed for other uses, erasing the last visible traces of the once-influential movement.
Thus, the period from 1964 to the present represents a history of gradual but inexorable disappearance of Freemasonry from Egyptian society. From organized prohibition through conspiracy suspicions to complete oblivion—such is the trajectory that Freemasonry has traveled in a country where dozens of lodges once flourished and thousands of initiates once worked. The only testimonies to the possible continuation of the tradition remain scattered and unverified reports from the 1970s-1990s, after which complete silence ensued, testifying to the final victory of anti-Masonic forces in Egyptian society.
Sources:
Official documentation regarding the closure of the Masonic temple in Alexandria on April 4, 1964, by order of the Egyptian Ministry of Social Affairs
Data on the number of Masonic lodges in Egypt between 1940-1957: 18 halls in Cairo, 33 in Alexandria, 10 in Port Said, 2 in Mansoura, 2 in Ismailia
Abdallah, Ahmad. “Freemasonry in Our Region” (1985) — analysis of conspiracy theories about the continuation of Masonic activity
Documentation regarding the case of spy Eli Cohen in Damascus (1965) and his connection to Egyptian Freemasonry
Fatwa by Egypt’s highest religious official in the 1970s forbidding Muslims from joining Rotary Clubs
Opinion of the Islamic Jurisprudential College of Al-Azhar University in Cairo (1978) on Freemasonry
Testimony of an American teacher from Iowa about his trip to Egypt in 1976 (Ken Dennis’s “Masonic Traveler” blog)
Henderson, Kent & Pope, Tony. “Freemasonry Universal” — information about rumors of the Grand Orient of Egypt’s existence until 1999
Documentation of the locations of former Masonic halls in Cairo: Tiring Building, Acher Building, Madrassa al-Fransawi Street
Statement by Giordano Gamberini in the Masonic journal “Hiram” (February 1981) about the connection of Rotary and Lions to Freemasonry
Testimony of a contemporary tourist-Mason from Mexico (2010s) about the absence of active lodges in Egypt
Works of Muhammad Rashid Rida and the journal “Al-Manar” as sources of Islamic anti-Masonic propaganda
