Egypt cleric 'to ban full veil'

[Sherban Shabeel]

While I cannot claim to have nearly as much wisdom as an imam, I believe this could have been done in a much more diplomatic way.

 

No need for a ban, the Sheikh could have just spoken out to educate people and to tell them Islam doesn't demand the niqab in women, and much less in school-girls.

 

An information campaign as opposed to an outright ban. People should be able to wear what they wish.

 

Personally, I suspect that there is more to this than meets the eye, and the fatwa might have been declared out of security concerns as well. Since bombings happened in Iraq with men disguised as women in niqab, how should security react when a niqab-wearing woman walks into a govt. building or a form of public transportation?

 

It would be rude to demand her to show her face, but isn't it dangerous not to do so?

[NGONGE]

^^It's not a 'fatwa' yet and there is no ban. He said he Would do it. Also, the 'ban' itself will only be applied to the University itself and wont be a general thing.

 

This is to do with a girl that was wearing her niqab in a classroom entirely made of girls. She put her niqab on when the Sheikh came and he thought she puts it on all the time. Bada bing, bada bang....

 

In other news, the education minster is banning niqabis from staying in University halls of residances.

 

Where is our Egypt Soler to tell us all about it? I am sure I've noticed one of the new intake was in Egypt.

[Zinki]

Waryaa Cawaale,i do not care what his title is but i know what he is. The day before yesterday he was shaking hands with the chief Zionist(who keeps a helmet full of dried Muslim blood) and today he wants our women to go around naked.

 

I advice you to know who you allow to be your sheikh or Imam, but as long as it concerns Tantawi,he is no longer credible.

[Cawaale]

^lol@the new intake

 

The Imam did not ban the Burka or face veil YET, but the ministry of education has clearly said he is going to ban the burka inside schools and universities.

 

A ban on nurses wearing the full face veil was announced last year, but not enforced. also there was a burka-clad researcher who was prevented from using the library of the American University in Cairo, she took her case to the Supreme Court and won.

 

I tell you the ban thing won't do anything, because the government can not enforce women to unveil, so it will continue through personal choices. but again the vast majority of Egyptian women wear the headscarf, only a very few wear the face burka/veil or niqab.

 

The Imam was and Still Subject to severe criticism because of shaking hands with Shimon Peres at the interfaith conference in New York at the time, while Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza and there has been a parliamentary question in Egypt about the handshaking even the Muslim Brotherhood deputies demanded him to apologize, some others demanded his removal.

[Cawaale]

zinki Bro I hope that you live your problems(Somali so called wadaads), which is more then that counts. leave them live their life sxb, i know you probably think that you are defending Islam, but you should know that Fatwa has place a and Time .

[Peacenow]

Wonderful news. The reform movement is coming and im glad more people are coming to sense. Let the Arabs be backward, they can afford it. Somalis cannot be backward because we need the outside world.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

 

Egypt's Al-Azhar university to ban niqab in women's classes

 

(AFP) – 6 hours ago

 

CAIRO — Egypt's Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious centre of religious learning in the Sunni Muslim world, said on Thursday it will ban the face veil from female-only classrooms and residences.

 

"The Supreme Council of Al-Azhar has decided to ban students and teachers from wearing the niqab inside female-only classrooms, that are taught by women only," a statement said.

 

The ban extends to women's dormitories and to schools affiliated with the university, it said.

 

The face-veil, or niqab, is worn by some devout Muslim women. Local press reported that Mohammed Tantawi, head of Al-Azhar, said last week that he intended to ban the practice in the university.

 

The supreme council's statement added that Al-Azhar does not oppose the niqab, which it said only a minority of Muslim scholars consider an obligation, but it opposes "imprinting it on the minds of girls."

 

The decision came after female students who wear the niqab were banned from the women's dormitory of the state-run Cairo University.

 

Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the hijab, which covers the hair, but the niqab is becoming more popular on the streets of Cairo.

 

The government has shown concern over the trend. The religious endowments ministry issued booklets against the practice, saying the niqab is not Islamic, and the health ministry wants to ban it among doctors and nurses.

 

In the Middle East, the niqab is associated with Salafism, an ultra-conservative school of thought practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia.

 

Most Salafis shun politics, but the creed has influenced Islamist militants such as Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

 

From the Palestinian territories, a small Salafi group known as Jund Ansar Allah has called on Egyptians to strike out in reaction, according to a statement reported by the SITE Intelligence Group.

 

"We call upon our mujahedeen brothers to start crushing the fortifications of the government of the pharaoh of this age (President Hosni Mubarak) and to strike with an iron hand all the agents and traitors."

 

Al-Azhar has long enjoyed a reputation as Sunni Islam's eminent source of learning and edicts.

 

Salafists, who actively promote their creed, sometimes funded by wealthy patrons in Saudi Arabia, are opposed to Al-Azhar's theological teachings.