Muftī

Al-Arabi has learned that Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman amir [commander] and mufti of Islamic groups has agreed to issue a request to the Egyptian authorities declaring his wish to return to his homeland.

It is time to do Dr. Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid justice and give him his credit back and remove the injustice done to him. We need his mind, his thinking and his personal interpretation in a phase in which Egypt suffers of the scarcity of intellectuals and lives a mixed and mingled reality that needs big minds to give a hand in solve its mysteries.

Emigrant Egyptians all over the world can now follow the news of their country via the Internet. One particular site provides Muslims all over the world with fatwas in their religion from the Mufti of Egypt. Pope Shenouda also publishes a weekly message on the web to the emigrant Copts.

His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday [August 24, 1999] inaugurated the memorial site of one of Prophet Mohammad’s companions in the central Jordan Valley region in Deir Alaa. The ceremony, attended by senior officials and Muslim clergy from different Arab states, is part of the Kingdom’s endeavor to renovate different Islamic sites in Jordan.

In the Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq summer camp in Alexandria, the Mufti of the Republic attributed society’s psychological ills and vices to the people’s lack of consciousness of their religion. He also underlined the deep-seated cordial relations and national unity between Muslims and Copts in Egyptian society. In his speech to the Muslim girls, the Mufti of the Republic dismissed the dispute alleging that the Egyptian laws were Western-style and that they offensively ignored the Muslim Shari’a.

The Mufti called all the Egyptian Muslims to pray the eclipse prayer from the beginning of the solar eclipse until its end.

In a series of articles, Mr. Al-Said Ahmed Higazi attacked Dr. Al-Said Farag, a professor in Al-Mansourah University with different claims, but each time he failed to destroy him. His last attempt is that he attacked the government’s decision concerning the "naked models."

Whenever there is any dispute about a religious matter, all the people will be waiting for the opinion of Al-Azhar or its fatwa [legally binding opinion] concerning this matter. This will relieve people of their doubts. But when the Azhar keeps silent... then who will answer?

The 11th conference of the High Council for the Islamic Affairs continues its sessions. Dr. Hamdi Zaqzouq, the Minister of Waqfs, said that the Muslims are invited to share in the aims of politicians and scientists in working towards a better world.

Dr. Abdel Sabour Shahin, who accused who previously filed a Hesba case against Dr. Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid accusing him of apostasy and causing the handing down of a judicial verdict divorcing Zaid from his wife, Dr. Ibtihaal Younnes, a development which led Abu Zaid and his family to emigrate from the country, now himself stands accused of apostasy on account of his book "Aby Adam: Bayn Al-Ostoura wal Al-Haqeeqa" ["Adam my father: Between Myth and Reality"].