Egypt’s Al-Azhar sets up 'Fatwa on the go' kiosk in Cairo metro

Liberals see the kiosks as a sign of increasing religiosity and an attempt by Al-Azhar to impose religious values and morality on the public.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Al Monitor
By Shahira Amin | July 23, 2017

Commuters passing through Cairo's downtown Al Shohada metro station, one of the busiest stops on Cairo's subway system, are now being offered a new service along with the train rides: religious edicts or “fatwas” free of charge courtesy of Al-Azhar.

Seated behind a desk in a small kiosk that bears a sign reading “Fatwa Committee,” two on-duty clerics from Sunni Islam’s oldest and most prestigious institution give religious guidance and advice to commuters who seek them out in what the sheikhs say is an attempt “to counter extremism.”

The fatwa kiosk is the first of several that Al-Azhar plans to install at Cairo metro stations in the coming months. It is the brainchild of Mohi El Din Afifi, the secretary-general of the Al-Azhar-affiliated Islamic Research Academy, who hopes “to bring Al-Azhar closer to the people,” according to Sheikh Ali Mostafa, one of the two clerics working the afternoon shift when Al-Monitor visited.
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