Video - Reformist Egyptian Journalist Islam Behery: Al-Azhar Considers Me More Dangerous than ISIS.

Egypt - Professor of al-Azhar University: If the veil is banned, we must also ban the wearing of the cross.

Egypt - Professor of al-Azhar University: If the veil is banned, we must also ban the wearing of the cross. (Fides).

If laws ban Muslim women from wearing the full veil (niqab), at that point, to avoid discrimination, we must also ban Christian women wearing necklaces with crosses.

This - as reported by the Egyptian media – is the controversial comparative argument put forward in recent days by sheikh Ahmed Karima, a Sunni professor of al-Azhar University, to defend the use of the niqab by the growing mobilization of Egyptian organizations that are calling for the abolition in public places.

In February, such campaigns achieved significant success, with the ban on wearing the full veil imposed on all women who work in the University hospital of Cairo.

According to scholar Karima, known as the Islamic Law expert (Sharia), such campaigns are an expression of a planned strategy put in place to hit the Islamic traditions of the Country, which risks fueling extremist reactions by radical Islamic groups.

According to the sheikh, an eventual ban on wearing the full veil imposed by law to Muslim women should have in consideration the ban for Christian women to wear the cross.

For weeks, the scholar and other Islamic leaders are launching the alarm about the spread of "secularist" tendencies in Egypt which in their opinion aims to outlaw everything that expresses their belonging to Islam.

Sheikh Karima reiterated that, in his view, the so-called "renewal of religious discourse", wished for several times in Egypt also by President Abdel Fattah Sisi, will certainly not lead to the abolition of what is required by the Sharia, because Egypt is an "Islamic country" and "Islamic rituals must be respected".

The 'Islamic' World Needs a Muslim Martin Luther.

The 'Islamic' World Needs a Muslim Martin Luther. (INN). By Dr. Mordechai Kedar.

The problem with these Islamic conferences is that they never have even one person who is prepared to state the painful truth:

the Quran, the Hadith, the history and biography of our prophet are filled with ideas, commandments, precedents that push our youth to terror, just as they motivated our forefathers to conquer most of the known seventh century world. The concept of conquering strange lands, the rule of Islam through terrible violence is what got Islam out of the Arabian peninsula to conquer the region from Indonesia in the east to Spain and Morocco in the west, and it is this that pushes our young men and women to join jihad and continue subjugation of the rest of the world.

True, there are other factors – political, social and economic – that help promote terror, but the main, basic reason is the ideas and precedents in islam’s holy works, and until real reformers arise and insert significant changes into these writings, instead of holding meaningless conferences like the recent Saudi one, Muslims will continue to hide their heads in the sand, and the world will continue to think that Islam is a religion of peace, because that is what the distinguished speakers at these conferences say. Denial of the real problem will perpetuate the problems derived from it.

We need a Muslim Martin Luther, who will ask the right questions, start an Islamic reformation, one that will quarantine all the notions of subjugation, violence, hatred and repulsion, changing Allah’s religion into something that will bring the cycle of violence and death to an end, giving life to Muslims and others.

Until that reformer is born, the Islamic world will continue shedding its own blood and that of others into the bloody swamp, fire and tears called Islamic state whose methods are exported from the depths of the seventh century to today’s entire world Read the full story here.

EGYPT - Egyptian President Sisi renews call for "revision of Islam"

EGYPT - Egyptian President Sisi renews call for "revision of Islam" (Fides).[GoogleTranslate].

In Egypt, efforts made ​​so far to "renew religious discourse" and so "dry up the sources" of extremism and terrorism "are not yet sufficient". Thus spoke Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in a speech transmitted by national TV channels last night, May 12.

In his speech, the Head of State again sought the Islamic University Al-Azhar and other national religious institutions to show more commitment in this area, as long as it could have a strong impact Egypt and other countries in the region.

During his television appearance, Egyptian President also revealed that during the month of April alone, 600 people, which he described as "terrorists" had been arrested in the country, a number that "reflects the efforts we are doing and magnitude of the challenge we face. "

Already in the earlier speech he addressed  researchers and religious leaders of the al-Azhar University - the largest Sunni Islam - Egyptian President urged religious leaders of Islam to "come out of themselves" and to promote "religious revolution" to eradicate bigotry and replace it with a "more enlightened worldview" .

During this intervention, immediately echoed by Fides (see Fides 01/02/2015), Egyptian President reaffirmed that the Islamic world can not be seen as "a source of anxiety, danger, death and destruction "by the rest of humanity and had targeted a" wrong thinking "- he opposed the true Islam - made ​​a muddle of ideas and texts that" we have made ​​sacred to recent years "and leading the entire Islamic community" to quarrel with the world. " (GV) (Fides Agency 13/5/2015)

EGYPT - Egyptian President Sisi Invited to the Easter Vigil from the Coptic Orthodox Church

EGYPT - Egyptian President Sisi Invited to the Easter Vigil from the Coptic Orthodox Church. (Fides).[GoogleTranslated].

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - The Coptic Orthodox Church has called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to participate in the Easter Vigil, to be celebrated on the evening of April 11 by Patriarch Tawadros II in the Cathedral of St. Mark in Cairo . This is shown by the Egyptian sources consulted by Fides.

Besides the Chairman, the Coptic Orthodox Church has already sent official invitations to a long list of political leaders and representatives of Egyptian institutions. In addition, 5,000 tickets for the faithful have been printed to allow them to participate in the liturgy of the Easter Vigil.

President al-Sisi has already participated in the vigil of the Coptic Christmas, in the evening of January 6, welcome in the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo by Patriarch Tawadros II and by the enthusiasm of the faithful. On this occasion, the personal participation of Egyptian president at the vigil in question - as was explained to Fides.

Bishop Antonios Aziz Mina Coptic Catholic Bishop of Giza - "represented an unprecedented event in the history of Egypt. In the past, the presidents were limited to send representatives.

Some Egyptian Presidents - including Hosni Mubarak and the Islamist Mohamed Morsi - presented their Christmas greetings to Patriarch through phone calls courtesy, while others - like Nasser and former Interim President Adly Mansour - had made ​​courtesy calls to the Patriarch in the days before Coptic Christmas. " Hmmm.....Lets hope the Muslim Brotherhood doesn't use the occasion to commit more terrorist attacks.

'Islam à la Sisi' - Egypt's state religious body puts Islamic centres under control, tightens grip.

'Islam à la Sisi' - Egypt's state religious body puts Islamic centres under control, tightens grip.(AA).

Egypt’s ministry of religious endowments (Awqaf), one of the country’s top state bodies, has decided to put all Islamic cultural institutes and preacher training centers under its control starting next academic year.

In a statement on Friday, Awqaf said it will not allow the educational centers, which used to be run by independent religious groups and associations, to be used “as a backdoor for extremism or terrorism.”

The move comes in a series of measures taken by the ministry and the country’s leading Sunni Islamic institute, Al-Azhar, to control the message and curb extremist ideas.

The latest decision mandates that only the syllabus assigned by the ministry will be allowed for study because text books “representing certain affiliations” help to feed radicalism and are “tearing apart the societal texture.”

Starting next academic year, only those certified from the ministry can head the center and those teaching should be “qualified and specialised.”

“No association or group will be an exception to this rule,” the ministry said, warning that any cultural or educational institute, not certified “with a written permit” from the ministry or Al-Azhar, would be deemed “illegal.”

The ministry said it will increase the number of its affiliated centers “to accommodate those wishing to receive the correct Islamic knowledge.”

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has on several occasions blamed religious discourse for the extremism that Egypt and other countries in the region are suffering from.

Last year, Awqaf ministry mandated all preachers to acquire a permit before giving religious sermons on the pulpit, ruled out hundreds of preachers and banned holding Friday prayers at the small less-regulated mosques known as Zawaya, which were often dominated by preachers from the Brotherhood and the fundamentalist Islamist Salafis.

According to a law passed under former President Adly Mansour, unauthorised preachers face jail terms of up to a year and maximum fines of LE 50,000 ($7,000).

“The danger coming from some of these institutes…is no less danger than claiming control over some mosques and Zawaya which some groups attempted to do,” the Friday statement said. Hmmmm.....You can expect the Muslim brotherhood to react as a devil been given a baptism.