CAIRO: In an interview with London-based Asharq Alawsat newspaper, an Egyptian cleric has issued a fatwa forbidding the use of the popular social networking site Facebook. Muslims using such sites must be considered sinners said the religious edict s author, Sheikh Abdel Hamid Al-Atrash, claiming that statistics show that divorce rates have risen since the advent of Facebook and that the social networking tool has sharply increased marital infidelity. It s an instrument that destroys the family because it encourages spouses to have relations with other people, which breaks Islamic sharia law, Al-Atrash told the newspaper. Al-Atrash is the former head of the fatwa commission at Cairo s Al-Azhar University, one of the highest authorities in Sunni Islam. While one or other of the spouses is at work, the other is chatting online with someone else, wasting their time and flouting the sharia. This endangers the Muslim family, he added. Like satellite TV, social networking sites are a double-edged sword , Al-Atrash said. While they permit the spread of Islam, they allow people forbidden love and relations. That is why whoever uses such websites must be considered a sinner, he concluded. The fatwa followed the publication earlier this week of a study carried out by the National Center for Social and Criminological Research (NCSCR) said that one in every five divorces in Egypt is caused by extra-marital affairs begun on Facebook or other social networking sites. A researcher from the NCSCR interviewed by BBC Arabic radio in a report aired Friday morning, said that Facebook encourages isolationist behavior. She gave the example of the family of an engineer who got "addicted to chatting with a woman he met on Facebook. "He would spend hours and hours alone, chatting and completely neglected his two children and his wife, she said. Some Facebook activists and political pundits, however, think that such a fatwa only serves dictatorial regimes in its attempt to stigmatize these new tools of dissent. Human Rights Watch researcher Heba Morayef, however, disagrees. In an interview with blogger Rachelle Kliger (noleslivinginegypt.blogspot), she said that she does not believe the fatwa was issued by the government as a way to stem online activism or to silence opposition groups on Facebook. As a non-binding opinion, she explained, the adoption rate of a fatwa depended on the influence and stature of the Sheikh who authored it. "For the most part, the government will only issue fatwas through the mufti who is closely aligned with government policy, to the extent that he will issue things that are criticized by the rest of the religious institutions, she said. "I don't think the government uses other low-level sheikhs because they are keen to monopolize the religious authorities in Al-Azhar. -Daily News Egypt.
