Barbs fly in Middle East over the Egyptian scholar's call to ban the face veil/ burqa at al-Azhar school

Damascus/Cairo - Islamic scholars from around the Middle East on Tuesday weighed in on the recent controversy in Egypt over whether the niqab, a veil that covers the full face, is Islamically correct.

Cairo's independent daily al-Masry al-Youm set off a firestorm of controversy on Monday when it quoted leading Egyptian religious authority Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi as saying he planned to ban the niqab from schools in the al-Azhar system.

Tantawi, the head of al-Azhar University, Cairo's centuries-old centre of Islamic learning, reportedly told a young girl to take off the niqab when he visited her classroom over the weekend. Al-Azhar runs a network of primary and secondary schools across the country.

'The niqab has nothing to do with Islam,' al-Masry al-Youm quoted Tantawi as saying. 'I know more about religion than you or your parents do.'

Tantawi is traveling in Tajikistan and neither he nor his staff have confirmed the newspaper report.

Because the opinions of the sheikh of al-Azhar have traditionally carried significant weight throughout the Sunni Muslim world, the comments have attracted regional attention, and have pitted scholars affiliated with secular governments such as Egypt's and Syria's against those affiliated with the conservative Saudi state.

At home, an Egyptian Islamist opposition lawmaker called for Tantawi's resignation, calling the reported remarks 'totally irresponsible.'

'On what basis does he issue such an edict and ban teachers and students who wear the niqab from entering al-Azhar?' the weekly Egyptian Mail quoted Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Hamdi Hassan as saying.

His response echoed that of senior Saudi religious scholar, Sheikh Mohammed al-Najimi.
'With all respect to our friend, Sheikh Tantawi, the niqab is not (merely) a tradition,' al-Najimi told the German Press Agency dpa by phone.

'I hope he will reconsider what the religious scholars said. It would be a great mistake to prevent wearing the niqab from entering al-Azhar.'

But Sheikh Mohammed al-Habash, a Syrian preacher who also holds a seat in that country's parliament, on Tuesday expressed his support for Tantawi's opinion.

'The niqab has no basis in Islamic law,' he told dpa in Damascus. 'Few scholars in the history of Islamic scholarship regard it as compulsory.'

The question may never be put to test, in any case. Atef Mohammed Abdou, head of an al-Azhar-affiliate institution in Cairo, was quoted by the pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat as expressing doubt that Tantawi would go through with the ban.

Abdou suggested that the wearing of the niqab should be considered a personal decision.

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court has indicated that it agrees. A total ban on the niqab contravened the Egyptian constitution, the court found, in considering the case of a researcher who sued after she was prevented from using a university library because she would not remove the niqab in 2001.

In contrast to Saudi Arabia, where the state enforces a conservative brand of Islam, most Egyptian women wear the hijab, or headscarf, and the full niqab is rare.

Monsters & Critics