A fatwa is a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist or group on a specific issue.
In the fatwa against him, Kemny was called an infidel and a criminal because he “doubts Islam.”
Gamal Al Banna, a leading progressive Islamic thinker and younger brother of the slain Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al Banna, said such fatwas give a bad impression of Islam and did not encourage a debate over the role of religion in daily life.
“We need to understand better how words are taken because this sort of thing is wrong and must be ended,” the elderly scholar said. “What should happen is a discussion about the work, not the man. Simply condemning the writer for his words will not create a society that thinks deeply about their faith.”
Kemny is known for his secular writings and his calls for an end to the use of Sharia, or Islamic.
The fatwa, issued last week, was in response to a letter sent to the Islamic Legislation Authority inquiring about the religious consequences for someone who denounces Islam in his books, and comes almost one month after the author was handed Egypt’s 2009 State Incentive Prize in Sociology.
The authority argued that Kemny’s writings violated Egyptian law, and that the writer should never have been awarded the prize.
“Our muftis are fully aware of the ongoing saga around Al Kemny and the prize. We already know the writer’s documented opinions and the fatwa is consistent with our knowledge of the current conflict and Al Kemny himself,” Sheikh Gamal Kotb, head of the authority’s Fatwa Committee, told Al Dustour newspaper.
Cairo - 28/07/2009
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