Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

The following lines present a review of the special file published by al-Ahrār highlighting the national and international reactions to Dr. Zaynab Radwān’s calls to make the testimonies of men and women equal in courts and to give a Jewish or Christian woman the right to inherit from her Muslim husband.

Drs. Hulsman and Dr. Burslem provide a detailed report on Muslim-Christian relations based on a review of Dr. Hugh Goddard’s book, commenting on a number of issues including Western perceptions, mis-interpretations, and examples of recent incidents involving Muslims and Christians.

The article reports on a decision of the Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy that prevents Christian or Jewish wives, as well as children of a Muslim man, from receiving inheritance from him after his death.

In the article, the author rejects the idea that a Muslim woman is allowed to marry a Kitābī [a Jewish or Christian] man.

The author responds to a controversial statement from the prominent Shaykh Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī in which he claimed that Christians are kāfirs.

Labīb Halīm Labīb presents the views of American writer John Esposito on thoughts of the Islamic movements in Egypt.

Zainab Abd al-Allāh comments on an article that promoted the marriage of Muslim women to Christian males. She cites the views of some Muslim scholars on this issue.

Dr. Zaynab Radwān, the deputy speaker of the Egyptian People’s Assembly created heated debates in Egypt when she stated that a woman’s testimony in court is equal to that of man and that the non-Muslim wife of a Muslim husband should enjoy the same rights to inherit from her husband. The controversy came about because Dr. Radwān’s suggestions do not correspond with the applied Sharī‘ah laws in Egypt.

In the article, Azhar scholars have confirmed a Fatwá of Shaykh Farahāt al-Munajjī that a Muslim man is prohibited to get married to a Jewish woman.

Charles

Fū’ād al-Misrī interviewed Dr. Aḥmad Subḥī Manṣūr, head of the Qur’ānists group, on his

life and activities in the U.S. as well as his some decade-old conflict with the Azhar.