AUC Caravan

By Tarek El-Deeb

The former head of the fatwa committee at Al-Azhar’s Islamic research academy, sheikh AbdelHamid Al-Atrash, issued a fatwa (religious edict) forbidding the use of Facebook under the premise that it leads to sexual liaisons and illicit affairs.

The Daily News published an article on Feb. 5, claiming that Al-Atrash had issued a fatwa forbidding the use of Facebook for being a tool for marital infidelity.

According to the article, Al-Atrash said Facebook encourages spouses to have illegitimate relationships with other people, which contravenes with Islamic shari’a law. The Sheikh added that whoever uses such social networking websites must be considered a sinner.

Al Atrash acknowledged that while Facebook does permit the spreading of Islam, it also gives people the chance to get involved in forbidden love and relationships.

A prominent Sheikh at the Sultan Hussein mosque in the Cairo district of Heliopolis said he agrees with the stance Al-Atrash has taken against Facebook, and that this issue doesn’t need a fatwa for people to realize that it is against Islamic law.

He said that if the government cannot control Facebook use in Egypt then parents should be teaching their children that its use is unacceptable, rather than waiting for Al-Azhar to rule it out.

London’s Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper reported that Al-Atrash’s fatwa was based on a survey conducted by the Egyptian national council for social and criminal research. The survey results showed that one out of five divorce cases in Egypt was caused by an affair with a partner found through Facebook.

According to the survey, Facebook facilitates meetings between lonely men and women who form a relationship outside marriage. But some students at The American University in Cairo disagree with this religious opinion, and see Facebook simply as a medium for staying in touch with friends and family.

“I honestly never felt like I was going against my religion by logging on Facebook,” said sophomore Karim El-Hassan. “I use Facebook to keep in contact with all my friends and family…especially since my whole family lives in Abu Dhabi and I’ve been living alone here for three years now. How is that against Islamic law?”

Al-Atrash, added to his previous comments days later, admitting that he is unaware of how to operate Facebook.

The Daily News wrote a follow-up story on Feb.14 during which Al-Atrash said his quotes were misinterpreted, adding that this misrepresented him as an “Islamic leader forbidding everything.”

“I didn’t ask people to stop using Facebook. All I said was that new media is a double-edged weapon,” said Atrash. “The fatwa I issued was that people can only use the Internet to benefit from it in their work and life, whereas they’re forbidden from using pornography or websites that promote illicit relations,” he said.

Many students disagree with Al-Atrash’s Facebook fatwa.

“I can understand Al-Atrash’s point of view,” said economics sophomore Hanzada El-Shihy. “But if that was the case then you could think that way about a glass, you could either drink water or alcohol from it. It shouldn’t be forbidden just because there’s a possibility that it can be used in a wrong way.”

There are currently 9,105 registered on the AUC Egypt network on Facebook.