CAIRO – Hundreds of Salafists, including dozens of veiled women, protested outside Al-Azhar offices in northern Cairo on Thursday, urging the mufti, Egypt's top Muslim cleric who issues religious edicts, to backtrack his view on the veil. The protesters raised banners that went further calling for Sheikh Ali Gomaa, the mufti, and Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayyeb to be sacked from their posts. "We are in Egypt not in France where the veil is banned" read one banner as another asked: "Is Gomaa better than the imprisoned corrupt officials?" Gomaa and el-Tayyeb say that the niqab (full-face veil) is an Islamic tradition that has nothing to do with the religion. The protesters called on religious authorities, especially the Islamic Research Centre to issue a fatwa that the niqab is an Islamic duty.
