June 23, 2019

The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Shawki Allam, received today afternoon a delegation of Professors and foreign students from the American University in Cairo (AUC) to respond to their queries on some vital issues.

Dr. Allam presented to the delegation the history of establishing Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta and the methodology of issuing fatwas. “An understanding of reality—political, economic, or social—is one of the most important factors on which a fatwa is based,” he said. He added that a fatwa is not only a matter of knowledge, but a vocation and craft that requires education, training, and discipline.

In his response to a question on the spread of Islamophobia in the west, Dr. Allam said that religious extremism is the outcome of a distorted religious discourse addressed to the west and the political Islamists who distorted the image of Islam.

The Grand Mufti stressed the efforts that the General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide does to eliminate hate speech and regulate the process of fatwa issuance worldwide.

At the end of the meeting, the delegation thanked the Grand Mufti, praised his responses that clarified many vital points and expressed their interest in having more meetings that help in correcting the image of Islam.