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Egyptian cleric bans Facebook
An Egyptian cleric has issued a religious decree banning the use of Facebook, on the grounds that it encourages adultery. Sheikh Abd Al-Hamid Al-Atrash, former head of the fatwa council at the influential Al-Azhar Institution, based his ruling on a sociological study linking the use of Facebook and other forms of new media with moral corruption. He called the site a destructive tool that helps form "forbidden relations." "When one side in a relationship is working hard, if the other side has lots of free time and hasn't got much of a conscience, they form illegitimate relationships," the cleric said. Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch said Facebook is used extensively in Egypt, both for social networking and for political purposes. "It's a relatively conservative society," Morayef told The Media Line. "For a lot of people, meeting people online is a way to date. What's interesting about it is that it's heavily used by activists to organize demonstrations and share information." Your average young Egyptian who wants to learn about politics will go onto Facebook," she added. "I think the security services still view this activism as something that is dangerous." Nevertheless, Morayef does not believe that this fatwa was sanctioned by the government as a way to silence opposition activists. "For the most part, the government will only issue fatwas through the mufti who is closely aligned with government policy, to the extent that he will issue things that are criticized by the rest of the religious institutions," she said. "I don't think the government uses other low-level sheikhs because they are keen to monopolize the religious authorities in Al-Azhar." Kareem El-Behirey, an Egyptian blogger, said the ban was part of a government tactic to employ religious people against channels of communication such as Facebook. "[The Sheikh] says that Facebook isn't good because it pits the woman against her husband," he told The Media Line. "But I think this is an attempt to stop people from using Facebook, blogs and certain websites. I think you can't stop them and it's a good way for activists to be heard on the streets so I don't think they will stop using Facebook." Posted by: Fred 2010-02-05 |
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