CAIRO, March 10, 2007 (AFP) - Egypt's top Muslim cleric or mufti, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, has launched a website to give a voice to moderate Islamic religious opinion, Cairo newspapers reported on Saturday.
The new website will allow the faithful to obtain individual religious edicts, or fatwas, on matters of Islamic ethics, and is aimed at spreading the moderate views of the leadership of Cairo's Al-Azhar university, the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning, Sheikh Gomaa said.
"These fatwas will be delivered for free in the four international languages -- Arabic, English, French and German," he told the leading state-owned daily Al-Ahram.
"The aim is to spread the moderate opinion of the Al-Azhar hierarchy which reflects the centre ground and moderation in Islam."
Sheikh Gomaa said he wanted a "counter to those who have made a lucrative business out of handing out fatwas, and who take advantage of Muslims' need for such a service without taking account of the negative repercussions."
The mufti has often spoken out against Muslim televangelists, many of them Islamists, who are given a pulpit on the religious affairs programmes of a number of Arabic satellite television channels.
The fatwas can be sought by email from fatwa@dar.alifta.org. Those without Internet access can also obtain them by dialling a special phone number within Egypt, by sending a request by letter or by fax, or by visiting the mufti's Cairo offices.
Sheikh Gomaa was at the centre of controversy in late January when another state-owned daily, Akhbar Al-Yom, carried a fatwa in his name saying that Islam forbids women from becoming a head of state because it would require them to lead prayer -- something only a man can do.
The following month the paper carried a clarification making clear that the interdiction only applied to the traditional role of caliph as both secular head of state and imam of the Muslims, not to the head of a modern state.
Egypt was the first Arab country to give women the franchise in 1956. However, increasing conservatism in society over the past several decades has slowed their progress in the public sphere.
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