CAIRO, Nov 3: Sunni Islam’s highest authority, Al-Azhar university, has blacklisted a book of love poetry by an Egyptian writer even though it was approved for sale by the Egyptian government earlier this year , a senior religious leader said on Monday.
The university’s Centre of Islamic Research found that Ahmed al-Shahawi’s book ‘Commandments on Women’s Love’ “used sayings of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) out of context to call on women to love without reservation,” Sheikh Saber Thaalab said.
The book “contains commandments calling on women to surrender themselves to passion, give themselves up absolutely and without shame, and parade naked before their lovers. It glorifies carnal pleasure, that’s why we’ve decided to ban it,” the cleric said.
But a culture ministry official said that Al-Azhar had “no right to ban books” without a court ruling. Any opponent of a book “must take recourse to the justice system, which is the only party entitled to decide”, said the head of the government-run General Publishing Authority, Samir Sarhan.
Only two months ago, Egyptian authorities approved the book for sale despite pressure from an MP affiliated to the banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood, Mustafa Mohammed Mustafa.
Sarhan is on record as saying Shahawi’s book was a “high quality work by a recognized poet who is also a responsible journalist with a national press organisation.”
It is unusual for the Al-Azhar to go against a decision of the Egyptian state. Its head, currently Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, is chosen with the approval of the authorities. -AFP
Why was the book approved by the Egyptian government, yet not by al Azhar? What standards did the Ministry of Culture use in determining that the book didn't deserve to be blacklisted? Not that i have read the book, maybe it deserves to be banned i have NO idea, but if al Azhar wanted the book banned, they should have followed the legal channel and gone through the courts. Otherwise it kindof sets a precedent for arbitrary banning of books based upon one person's personal preferences.
The Egyptain government is secular by force. Thus everything goes. Including such books even though the majority of the population may not agree with its inclusion. Al Azhar did what it thought was right in the name of religion.
Al Azhar might have did what was right according to the name of religion but I think the issue is whether Al Azhar has the right to ban the book without jurisdiction:
*But a culture ministry official said that Al-Azhar had "no right to ban books" without a court ruling. Any opponent of a book "must take recourse to the justice system, which is the only party entitled to decide", said the head of the government-run General Publishing Authority, Samir Sarhan. *
assuming they did have it could open up a whole new can of worms.
That's what i mean, if al Azhar takes on the decision to ban books arbitrarily, it opens a can of worms. Which book is next then ? Personally i think peoples' access to "good" books should never be hindered. This book may well deserve to have been banned (never having read it, i can't make that call) but it's not for al Azhar to decide. They should have obtained a court ruling. Even Egypt's Ministry of Culture did not decide to ban the book, neither did the government-run General Publishing Authority. So if the government doesn't have a problem with it, why did al Azhar? However, the book may very well have objectionable contents and if it indeed did, then the court would have determined that and the book would have been banned by the courts. Fair enough, that's the route it should have gone through.
CM, you have a quote by Khalil Gibran as part of your signature, who happens to be one of my favourite philosophers/poets. He has written SOME stuff that could be considered questionable as well - think of his works on love and glorification of certain individuals/feelings etc. What if some individual at al Azhar decides that some of Gibran's poetry is not suitable? It's not upto one or two individuals' personal whims, the courts should decide i think.
and judges are appointed by? don't tell me they represent the opinions of common people in egypt. these r the same judges that have put hundreds of thousands of people in jails for no obvious reasons, except they belong to some ding-dong-islamic party which is preceived as a threat to husseni mubarak and his so-called-democratically-elected-puppet government. i'm very sure that even if al-azhar went to court with a complaint, court won't rule in their favour.
Seriously people. In the US and Canada people still go around burning books. The whole witchs and warlocks stuff. Schools decide which books they feel they are going keep and which they arent. It happens in all societies including the UK and EU. Now that Al Azhar does it, its a big thing.
Tell me how many of you have seen the book "They dare to speak out" in your college library. If you have seen it in the US i am extremely surprised.
PTAs in schools have books removed, colleges dont keep certain books due to political alignment. Al Azhar has every right to say that they should ban the book and people that support Al Azhar have the right to follow it or not. Its call freedom of speech. Just because you dont agree with it doesnt mean it is wrong.
Nadia with peotry by Muslim/Islamic figures, i believe it can be attributed to 2 or 3 things. Love for the religion or a person. Literature is about intepretation on what you think it means. Peotry means different things to different people. If there is a case of ambigiouty, then there shouldnt be an issue. But from what i have seen there is nothing ambigious about what this author did or said according to Al Azhar.