A scandalous religious edict had the papers howling, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed Two weeks ago, an Al-Azhar scholar, Ezzat Atia, issued a fatwa (religious edict) claiming that if a female employee wanted to sit alone with her male co-worker, she should breast-feed him five times to the full so that he becomes like her son, and thus they can sit together alone in the office. The scandalous fatwa says much about the volatile mix of religiosity and paranoia that swirls in religious and secular circles these days. Superstitions abound, and the press unleashed a deluge of national opprobrium. The fatwa in question was issued by Atia, one of the most notorious sheikhs of Al-Azhar, renowned for his propensity for self-seeking publicity. The distinguished columnist Salama Ahmed Salama, in the official daily Al-Ahram, did not mince words. His scathing criticism was reserved for the irresponsible sheikhs who issue fatwas that cause so much confusion among the public. "Fatwas have been chasing us day and night, on TV and telephone, from scholars and ignorant people, fortunetellers and superstitious people. Such fatwas deal with every trivial and important matter, life and death, war and peace, politics and economy, love and sex, anything and everything... and the latest fatwa disseminated [by one of Al-Azhar scholars] exposed the simple-mindedness that rocked the pillars of Al-Azhar." Salama pointed out that such fatwas tarnish the image of Islam at a time when Islam has come under intense scrutiny from the West. He also stressed that fatwas have become a dubious source of income. Indeed, he likened the issuing of fatwas to the entertainment business. "Disseminating fatwas has become a profitable business like entertainment competitions." Salama lamented the state of the nation's intellectual well- being. He derided the debased ideas now common among the country's leading intellectuals and media workers who inadvertently spread trivia and ridiculous notions. "If we had concerned ourselves with feeding our minds, rather than breast-feeding workmates, we would not have unresolved problems that have been solved in other countries [ages ago] like transplanting human organs, women and children's rights, family planning, and modern bank dealings," Salama extrapolated. In much the same vein, Mohamed Salah, writing in the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom about the latest fatwa on breast-feeding, poured scorn over the entire affair. "The whole matter is silly. However, after detecting the origin of the story of the fatwa, I found out that the National Democratic Party is behind it... since the daily mouthpiece of the party interviewed the sheikh who announced it on its front page. And then the media took it from the newspaper and spread it." Salah touched on the political ramifications of the affair. "All what has been done was to refer the sheikh who announced the fatwa to investigation after the grand imam of Al-Azhar refused his apology... while neither the officials of the ruling NDP or the government or its mouthpiece apologised for publishing the fatwa... they did conceal it as they did with every corruption case that involved one of the NDP figures like the sinking of the ferry, or the fire that set Beni Sweif theatre ablaze." Indeed, Salah linked all the man-made disasters that had befallen the nation to the regime's party. As a matter of fact, Khairi Ramadan also writing in Al-Masry Al-Yom, decried the state of the nation. "The scene [in Egypt] seems confused. The summit [of the society] has grown old and doesn't want and is not able to change, and is content with what it has done. Meanwhile, the people are still in tatters and busy talking about the controversy over the breast-feeding of male co-workers... at a time when the society is overwhelmed with corruption," lamented Ramadan. Giving licence to the National Democratic Front Party, Saad Hagrass, in the daily Al-Alam Al-Yom, wondered about the reasons behind the government granting the party a licence. He spelt it out. "Due to the repeated rejection of the formation of new political parties, the Political Parties Committee [that gives licence to political parties], is being called by the people the Anti-Political Parties Committee. The formation of the committee will consist of the National Democratic Party's Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif, the minister of interior and minister of state for parliamentary and legal affairs," Hagrass warned. Some papers touched on the question of African unity. The establishment of the African Union (AU) was the subject of an editorial of Al-Ahram. The paper reflected the official interest in strengthening ties with African nations. Al-Ahram 's editorial coincided with the official visit to Egypt of Ghanaian President John Kufour. The AU summit meeting is expected to take place in the Ghanaian capital Accra in July. Al-Ahram 's editorial also coincided with the tragic killing this week of an Egyptian peacekeeping soldier in Darfur. "The deep ties binding Egypt and Africa are not merely hollow slogans -- they represent a common interest, destiny and great expectations. Therefore, Egypt has been contributing to the settlement of the crises of the continent in war zones and countries as far afield as Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Burundi, and Sierra Leone."
