An Egyptian cleric angrily responded by saying 'fiddlesticks' to a call by a hardline Saudi cleric to demolish the Holy Mosque in Mecca in Saudi Arabia and rebuild it in a way that would ensure sex segregation. He also urged the adoption of a unified mechanism for issuing fatwas (religious edicts) in the Muslim world. "Demolition of the Holy Mosque to ensure segregation between men and women can only be a call issued by an ignorant person. I say ‘fiddlesticks' in full voice to this kind of insanity," said Abdel-Moeti Bayoumi, a member of the Al-Azhar-affiliated Islamic Research Centre. He condemned the call and its issuer saying, “Stop this lunacy that tarnishes the image of Islam, clerics and all followers of the Prophet Mohamed.” Sheikh Youssef al-Ahmad of Saudi Arabia told the Saudi-based Bedaya TV Wednesday that the Holy Mosque, the site of Islam's pilgrimage, should be demolished and replaced with a new one featuring "10, 20 or 30" floors. "The floors would then be divided between men and women," al-Ahmad said in video footage posted on the Internet. "This haphazard approach among Muslim cleric over issuing edicts will make the West look down on all Muslims and gives a bad idea about Islam," Bayoumi, a professor at Al-Azhar, told The Egyptain Gazette Thursday. He called on Arab and Muslim leaders to form a world fatwa committee to standardise religious edicts. The existing Holy Mosque has three floors and is the largest mosque in the world. It is built around the Kaaba, the most sacred place in Islam. The Saudi cleric is known for his controversial religious views. He once issued a fatwa calling for anyone who allows unmarried men and women to mix to be put to death. Last month, another prominent Saudi cleric, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, issued an edict calling for those who support co-educational environments to be executed. The ruling was following by a barrage of criticism from religious scholars in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and many Muslim clerics across the world condemning his fatwa as a call for violence.
