Date of source: Saturday, April 29, 2000 to Friday, May 5, 2000
Those who carry out Da’awa [missions], without relevant permission are like men carrying rapid fire guns and shooting [fatwas] everywhere, banning and permitting many things, and hitting the internal peace of the people. Giving them a license is more serious than giving a license for firearms.
Date of source: Saturday, April 22, 2000 to Friday, April 28, 2000
Calling for Islam is a double-sided weapon if those who are responsible for it do not have enough knowledge to be qualified. Ijtihad is very difficult but nowadays, Islamic preachers are used to penetrating all matters of fiqh and any other matter by advice and giving fatwas. There are conditions...
Date of source: Saturday, April 22, 2000 to Friday, April 28, 2000
Religious fanaticism enters the minds of people through sessions, in which each sheikh, amir [leader of a fanatic group] or preacher claims that the community is sinful and that this must be changed by violence. We have warned in several issues about the religious sessions held by unqualified...
Date of source: Saturday, April 22, 2000 to Friday, April 28, 2000
The awful show of the sheikhs on tapes is still going on. Sheikh Kishk started this in the seventies. They recite only the texts of the Qur’an which speak of sins, and torment in hell. Those who take on the characteristics of preachers without deserving it talk on everything - without adequate...
Date of source: Saturday, April 8, 2000 to Friday, April 14, 2000
"Al-Mustashyakhoun" [Arabic for unqualified people who pretend to be sheikhs]
The people who belong to this group let their beards grow and sit in front of television cameras like superstars. They put the initials "Dr." before their names in order to mislead people and make them think that they...
Date of source: Saturday, March 25, 2000 to Friday, March 31, 2000
The appointment of "non-Azhar" female scholars as theologians, and ignoring those who have graduated from the Azhar has provoked a controversy specially after the case of [a certain woman called] Shereen who taught women Islamic religion without obtaining the relevant permission while dozens of Al...
Date of source: Friday, November 19, 1999
Interview with Dr. Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, Grand Sheikh of the Azhar, about a range of actual subjects in Egypt, including regulating pilgrimage, his opposition to the embargo of Iraq, religious censorship, the new magazine of the Azhar, a fatwa on taking loans, presenting religious personalities...
Date of source: Thursday, April 22, 1999 to Wednesday, April 28, 1999
Egypt’s state theologian, Mufti Nasr Farid Wasel on April 17, denied reports that he had issued a fatwa (religious opinion) saying that it was haram (forbidden) under Islam for actresses and belly dancers to perform the hajj (Muslim pilgrimage).
Date of source: Monday, October 19, 1998
The use of Fatwas (religious decrees) has been exploited to the full: the murder of President Sadat generated a Fatwa, the attack on the Population Conference in 1994 resulted in another Fatwa, the lootings of gold shops was followed by a Fatwa and the list is long.
Date of source: Friday, July 24, 1998
In a meeting with the American ambassador to Egypt, Dr. Nasr Farid Wassel, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, said that there is no religious persecution of Christians by Muslims.