In Wednesday’s newspaper issues, several columnists praised Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb’s interference to overturn a decision of expelling a female student over a hug, while others continued to comment on the sanction regulations of the Supreme Media Council. Some writers also reported on US President Donald Trump’s recent threats to Turkey over Syria’s Kurds.
In Al-Akhbar daily, Mohamed Barakat hailed Al-Tayeb’s humanitarian and fatherly behaviour in dealing with the case of the Mansoura’s female student, who, he wrote, committed such an act due to her young age and lack of experience.
Barakat highlighted that Al-Tayeb’s wise interference to reconsider the decision of expelling the student saved her educational future and established the need for guidance and mentoring before resorting to severe punishments.
Meanwhile, Osama Al-Ghazali Harb of the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper also applauded Al-Tayeb. Harb commenced his opinion piece by expressing his appreciation of the Grand Imam’s appeal to the Al-Azhar University’s disciplinary committee to mitigate the punishment.
Harb mentioned his previous op-ed entitled “Al-Mansoura hug,” in which he denounced the excessive cruel university response to the student’s act instead of guiding her due to her young age.
In another context, Emad El-Din Hussein, editor-in-chief of the private newspaper Al-Shorouk, briefly reviewed some of the sanction regulations of the Supreme Media Council.
Hussein argued that the sanction regulations allow the council to shut down any newspaper or media institution whether through imposing huge fines or suspending its activities. Hussein also mentioned article No 5, which sanctioned whoever violated the rules of media coverage of terrorist attacks and security operations. He asserted the significance of considering the provisions of national security; however, he wondered who will define those provisions.
Back to Al-Ahram daily, Makram Mohamed Ahmed commented on Trump’s recent threats to devastate Turkey economically if its forces attacked the Kurds.
Ahmed argued that the real reason of the recent dispute between Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is that Turkey misunderstood the US President’s mandate regarding continuing to fight Islamic State militants in Syria.
Ahmed clarified that Erdoğan deliberately misapprehended Trump’s mandate, giving himself the right to strike the US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria.
