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EGYPT: NIQAB NOT A RELIGIOUS SYMBOL, MINISTER SAYS |
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Written by adnki.com
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Thursday, 19 October 2006 |
Cairo, 13 Oct. (AKI) - The niqab, a Muslim headdress that leaves only the eyes exposed, is not a religious object, Egypt's religion minister said Friday, entering the debate started by British ex-minister Jack Straw, who said he asked Muslim women visiting him to show their faces to facilitate dialogue. "Nor is the niqab a duty deriving from the Sharia" added Mohammad Hamdi Zaqzouq. "I know I will be criticised for my words but I think some Muslims are committing a fundamental error, focusing on external and superficial aspects, without exploring more relevant themes, and hence providing a distorted image of Islam" he said.
Straw last month triggered debate by inviting Muslim women in Britain to leave at home their veils, saying he would like to see their faces, "understand the expression of his constituents".
"I don't think he made an offensive request, especially as the Sharia requires that women cover their heads but not that they hide behind a mantle which makes them irrecognisable" Zaqzouq said.
Even if there was no explicit reference Zaqzouq's comments come one day after protests at Cairo University, following the decision by the president Abdel Hay Ebeid to ban female students from wearing the full veil in the dormitories of the institute, for security reasons.
Even the top theological authority of Al-Azhar University, the highest seat of Sunni learning, Sheikh Sayed Al Tantawi, has spoken out and accepted the decision explaining that as long as the univeristy obliges the female students to take off the niqab and not the headscarf they are not infringing the tenets of Islam.
In his speech, Zaqzouq explained the bill that his ministry had presented to the government, and which forbids demonstrations in mosques because they violate the sanctity of the place of worship. "The mosques are not a place for politics and it is unacceptable that imams discuss these issues in their preaching" he added.
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