A new fatwa in Egypt stirs controversy. The edict issued by Mahmoud Amer, head of the Ansar al-Sunnah in Damanhur governate (180 km) north of Cairo, called to kill Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, former director of the International Agency for Atomic Energy. However, Al Azhar considered issuing such fatwa as "reckless" while the supporters of ElBaradei, who is considering running for the presidential election next year, warned of the the dangers of such fatwas.
Amer justified the killing of ElBaradei because he chooses "to disobey to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, and calls for civil disobedience, destruction."
On his part, Dr Abdel Muti Bayoumi, former Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Al Azhar University, a member of the Islamic Research Academy of Al Azhar said:" This fatwa is completely wrong, it is not permissible to issue fatwas of murder, because this would lead to fighting."
On his part, Dr Mohamed Othman, Dean of the Faculty of Sharia law and former member of Islamic Research Academy at Al-Azhar said that "this fatwa is not supported by evidence, as Dr. ElBaradei did not demand that the Egyptian people carry out a revolution against the ruling regime, but called to change the policies of the Egyptian regime ".
