CAIRO: Mosque Imam Safwat Hijazi is facing a legal investigation by Egyptian authorities for a fatwa that he issued earlier allowing the killing of Israeli military officials and soldiers visiting Egypt. The Cairo imam was called into Egypt’s supreme state security court on Monday, facing charges as a result.
“I only said that we should kill their fighters, Hijazi told the press a few days before his trial. “Then after consulting with my sheikhs, I understood that the Islamic sharia respects the orders of the head of the state and respects agreements.
According to Hijazi, he immediately retracted the fatwa after realizing it violated the peace treaty between Egypt and the Jewish state. He also told Al-Arabiya TV network that he is aware that, in the worst-case scenario, he could go to prison over his statements. He also added that he is generally a “very moderate sheikh; I do not incline towards extremism or violence.
Hijazi had issued the controversial fatwa in the wake of the Israeli offensive on Lebanon. Hijazi, according to Agence-France Presse (AFP), has called on Muslim worshippers to kill any Zionist anywhere in wartime, specifying that the use of fire arms, knives and poison should be preferred to suicide bombings in order to spare innocents. I myself am ready to slash the throat of any Israeli I meet, he was quoted by AFP as saying.
However, following much uproar from the public over such an edict and from Al-Azhar (Egypt’s foremost authority on Islamic matters) the cleric made an about-face and withdrew his fatwa. He has been prohibited by the Islamic institution from giving sermons and his case was immediately transferred to the authorities, who pressed charges.
Al-Azhar, shortly afterwards, issued a statement criminalizing the killing of Jews in Egypt and deeming it a terrorist act. Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa also told the press that Israelis granted visas, who enter Egypt as visitors, are guests and should not be harmed, even if there is an ongoing war between Egypt and Israel.
The imam, who received his doctorate in Islamic studies in France, told Al-Arabiya television network that his fatwa had been misunderstood and misquoted and that after consulting with his senior clerics, he decided to retract it completely.
The much-criticized fatwa coincides with the minister of religious endowment’s anger over extreme opinions on Arabs and Muslims reportedly published in a Jewish magazine that has been termed Zionist. In a recent instance, according to the minister, an article referred to the Arabs as “beasts and a vile nation. The minister deemed the magazine article disrespectful of Muslim feelings.
