President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi called for uniting the fatwa bodies due the “deformation” of the image of Islam during Dar al-Iftaa’s international conference Tuesday, reported a release from the presidency.
Sisi received a number of muftis and Senior Scholars in conference titled “Fatwa: Problematic Reality and the Mechanisms of the Future,” on Aug. 17 and 18.
Conflicts have erupted between the fatwa authorities during the past years due to the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In early 2014, the Council of Senior Scholars of Al-Azhar concluded that the fatwas issued by sheikhs Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Abu Ishaq al-Heweny have no basis in Islamic law and should be disregarded.
The Grand Mufti of Egypt Shawky Allam and Osama Al-Azhari, member of the Presidential Council for Social Development attended the conference. The list of attendees also included both the former president of the Maldives, and the Mufti of the Royal Court in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the imam of the Grand Mosque as well as a group of ministers of Awqaf and Religious Affairs of Arab and Islamic countries.
President Sisi stressed the importance of maximizing the role of the Fatwa bodies to become the only reference to the issuance of fatwa, contributing to the stability of society, the spokesman added.
During the conference, undersecretary of Al-Azhar Abbas Shouman said, “The fatwas of scholars who belonged to past eras should be reconsidered because they may be based on customs that have long changed.”
