Cairo -
Controversy continues in the Egyptian street regarding the series "Faten Amal Harbi", by its controversial media author Ibrahim Issa, which is broadcast in the month of Ramadan after Al-Azhar's criticism of the dramatic work as it discusses doctrinal issues related to women, and shows religious scholars in an inappropriate manner.
Since its first episodes, the series has sparked a great deal of controversy due to highlighting the views of its author, who is known for his closeness to power, as some saw that he was promoting his beliefs through dramatic work, presenting direct messages on the lips of his heroine, Faten, and skeptical of jurisprudence and the opinions of scholars, and calling that the hadiths of the Prophet are unconfirmed and should only be relied upon. on the Holy Quran.
The pioneers of the communication sites circulated the text of one of the exciting scenes in the series, where Faten asks a sheikh and when he responds to her, she tells him that she wants the word of God and not the words of scholars regarding the custody of her children, so that the sheikh tells her that this is what he preserves.
A lengthy statement from the Al-Azhar Center for Fatwa in response to the controversy in doctrinal matters in the series “# Faten_Amal_Harbi” warning against mocking the verses of the Noble Qur’an, destroying the status of the Prophet’s Sunnah, fueling extremist ideas, and distorting the image of the religious scholar in society pic.twitter.com /FJ0H1UTUKM
— Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) April 16, 2022
strong statement
About two weeks after the start of the Ramadan series, the Al-Azhar International Center for Fatwa broke its silence and issued a strongly worded statement, the day before yesterday, Saturday, warning against mocking the verses of the Noble Qur’an, destroying the status of the Prophet’s Sunnah, fueling extremist ideas, and distorting the image of the religious scholar in society.
The statement pointed out that deliberately presenting the Islamic scholar with his white Azhar turban in the image of the ignorant, the ignorant, the devoid of chivalry, the lowly self, the slanderous - in some works of art - is a deplorable bullying, and an intentional distortion is rejected, and is not commensurate with the great people of Egypt's reverence for religious scholars and his men.
He said that the systematic negative charging in some artworks towards religion and the distortion of religious concepts and moral values, with the aim of provoking controversy and increasing fame and sightings, is a harbinger of danger that signals hateful extremism and threatens intellectual security and community peace and integrity.
He believed that presenting just religious and societal issues in suspicious forms oppresses these issues, and using the selective approach directed at presenting a societal problem, which does not present it in all its aspects, does not contribute to solving it, but rather exacerbates it, increases polarization around it, disturbs societal peace, and exports a fragmented and negative image to the world About Egyptian society is not the truth and reality.
Al-Azhar’s statement strongly criticized the cover-up behind women’s rights banners to divide society, and the portrayal of some individuals of the Islamic heritage as an enemy of women, and stressed that the use of media and drama to distort this heritage is a malicious, malicious thought that aims to put religion aside from human life and diminish its role, and calls for the import of Western ideas alien to our Arab societies. And Islamic in order to dissolve its identity and obliterate its features.
Scholars and advocates refuted what they called the suspicious campaign against Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Egypt, and criticized the Supreme Council for Media Regulation (governmental) ignoring the comment on the series' scenes of insulting the cleric, especially since it falls within its specialization in censoring dramas according to the law.
The law authorizes the Council to set and implement the necessary controls and standards to ensure that media and press institutions adhere to the profession’s principles and ethics, and to preserve intellectual property rights related to their content.
It is worth noting that "Faten Amal Harbi" is the first television series written by Issa, after he presented his three films "Mawlana" (2017), "The Guest" (2019) and "The Owner of the Maqam" (2020), and he is expected to release his new movie "The Atheist". " almost.
All of them revolve around Issa's controversial religious views, as well as artistic criticism of the dramatic context of his works, and that most of them depend on direct preaching on the lips of the work's personalities without a dramatic interaction.
Because of “challenging the principles of religion” .. a sharp attack by Islamist preachers on the series “# Faten_Amal_Harbi” and its author # Ibrahim_Issa pic.twitter.com/tpwPUJ2ktD
— Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) April 16, 2022
systematic attack
In this context, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Union of Muslim Scholars, Dr. Muhammad al-Saghir, attacked what he called suspicious attempts to undermine the honorable Al-Azhar and scholars, saying that “what the Ibrahim Issa series presents falls within a scheme to distort the Islamic religion, and detract from the role of Al-Azhar and its sheikh and sheikhs in an image vulgar under the guise of feminism.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Saghir, who was an advisor to the former Egyptian Minister of Endowments, expressed his belief that the continuous attempt to question the principles and provisions of the Islamic religion by some writers and theorists loyal to the authority undoubtedly aims to abolish Al-Azhar's role in spreading moderate thought and putting religion aside from human life, And he opened the door wide to Western ideas that are alien to Arab and Islamic societies.
The former representative of the Religious Committee of the Egyptian Parliament questioned the role of the Supreme Council for Media and its position regarding the systematic attack on Al-Azhar and the sheikhs. He did not rule out that this silence was intended in itself to pass the drama, according to his belief.
Women's support and controversy on social media
Since the first episodes of the series, the National Council for Women (a government agency) celebrated him in a statement on his official Facebook page, stressing his support for him and stressing the importance of raising awareness of the support of divorced women, especially with regard to the marital home.
In its statement, the council considers that "the series raised an important issue facing many married women or in the case of separation and divorce with custody, which is the issue of the marital home, although housing is a duty of the husband to his wife, and the father to his children."
In every case in which the name of Al-Azhar or its Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb is mentioned, social media platforms in Egypt turn into an arena of intellectual battle between a majority supporting Al-Azhar, as it adopts a moderate approach in the face of Westernization and secular trends, and a minority that opposes Al-Azhar and its role in defending heritage.
It is enough that it was written by Ibrahim Issa
Qatu
— wafaa adel58 (@WafaaAdel58) April 17, 2022
Al-Azhar did not start causing controversy with its statement, but the statement came as a reaction to the controversy raised due to the Faten Amal Harbi series.
— Saleh Omar (@salehahmedomar) April 17, 2022
Ibrahim Issa is losing the Egyptian feminist movement a great effort in the stifling inside it with Al-Azhar and using the women’s issues. The
feminist stifling will not be the case for renewing religious discourse, Mr. Ibrahim, feminists are suffocating over civil rights # Faten_Amal_Harbi
- The important commandant Janab (@OmersalahMarei1) April 17, 2022
The problem is that Ibrahim Issa speaks of religion and Islam, and is not a critic of the principles of the curriculum at all!
But the truth is Islam as a method is not suitable for enacting the laws of 2022 and our future, and the state that derives laws from the jurisprudence of sheikhs is a dysfunctional state.
And that's why we will be left behind so much until officials come and toast to the bravest.
https://t.co/3BNNAqBzLW
— Amira Abushahba 🇪🇬 (@mira_aboushahba) April 17, 2022