Free Republic

By Sobhy Mujahid, IOL Correspondent CAIRO, May 12 (IslamOnline.net) - Several scholars from Al-Azhar, the world's highest Sunni religious authority, condemned the decapitation of an American civilian by unknown people in Iraq, saying Islam stands against such acts. "Islam respects the human being, dead or alive, and cutting off the American's head was an act of mutilation forbidden by Islam," Ibrahim Al-Fayoumi, a member of Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy, told IslamOnline.net. He cited a number of verses from the holy Qur'an which affirm giving due respect to dead people regardless of their race or religion. However, Fayoumi suspected the whole...

No More Calling Jews “Pigs” (For Now) Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, spiritual head of al-Azhar University and the leading Sunni imam in Egypt, has convened al-Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy, which issued a new fatwa, or edict, regarding use of the descriptor “monkeys and pigs” in reference to Jews. According to the new ruling, it is now forbidden to describe “present day Jews as ‘monkeys and pigs’,” reports Albawaba.com, the Arab news web portal. This ruling would seem to represent a major shift in Tantawi’s view: last year, he delivered a sermon - like so many others delivered by various religious...