In their end of the year report, Dar Al-Ifta, Egypt’s foremost authority on religious edicts, announced that they have issued more than 630,000 religious edicts (fatwas) in addition to several other accomplishments during the year 2015.
Dar Al-Ifta called 2015 a “year of major achievements”, as it has made significant effort to deliver a moderate message of the religious institution in order to build bridges of communication with people from different cultures.
Dar Al-Ifta was officially recognized as a reference for the European parliament on deliberations on religious edicts, to provide for the needs of Muslims in Europe while also fighting Islamophobia.
The institute established an “Islamophobia observatory” in December that will be responsible for noting occurrences of the phenomenon and for composing strategies for its management.
The religious institution has increasingly turned to social media to clarify the provisions of Islam. They launched an initiative calling on western media to refrain from using the term “Islamic State” when referring to the terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.
With the Facebook page “Not in the Name of Muslims”, Dar Al-Ifta aimed to address anti-Islamic sentiment following the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. They also published Insight magazine to counter the Dabeq”publication of the Islamic State (IS).
Grand Mufti Shawqy Allam also turned to traditional print media where he wrote a number of articles in news publications such as the Washington Post and The Independent to clarify Islamic law and to call upon the international community to denounce extremists who want to use religion as a means to legitimate non-humanitarian acts.
