Salafist youth have begun an online campaign to organise protests against the banning of the niqab (full-face veil) during university exams.
The youth are angry that the Egyptian Higher Administrative Court ruled in favour of the universities’ decision to ban the niqab during exams on Saturday.
The youths are organising protests in front of the military council’s headquarters and within university campuses this Monday. They also said that they will organise a protest in front of the Office of Religious Edicts to express their discontent with the ruling and warned that they will write to the military council and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to voice their discontent.
The youths also waged a war of words against Al-Azhar’s Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa because of his statement that the niqab is a tradition rather than a stipulation in Islam. The youths are demanding that Al-Azhar scholars issue a new verdict that says that the niqab is legitimate even if it is not a religious obligation (fard). They also asked the scholars to protest against Gomaa because he was appointed rather than elected and his religious views are not representative of Al-Azhar.
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