Grand Mufti warns against dangers of extremist groups

CAIRO – 21 July 2017: Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawki Allam warned against the danger of extremist groups exploiting the social media campaigns to spread their ideologies among youth.

In an interview with Maspero program on State TV, the Grand Mufti stated that the extremist groups are launching human development courses in social media with the aim to collect money and fund their illegal activities.

The Grand Mufti stated that these campaigns target young age people in social media, referring to the statics that say that 64 percent of social media users are less than 30 years old.

He continued to say that Dar Al-Ifta’s Fatwa Monitoring Observatory monitor these social media sites to follow their posts and events.

He added that the country has full control on these sites in the light of its war against extremists and terrorist groups and went to call youth to think carefully and use their minds deeply before embracing any ideology.

He also stressed on the need to confront these ideas of extremists by drowning social media with true and authentic religious information and ideas, mentioning the official page of Dar Al-Ifta as a real example.

He stated that Dar Al-Ifta official page on Facebook, which is followed by 6 million persons, has a daily live broadcast on the Facebook page for an hour, from Sunday to Thursday.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi addressed the topic of changing the religious discourse in several occasions as he warned against the spreading of terrorism through the rise of extremist ideologies.

Accordingly, the fatwa observatory, which is a part of Dar Al-Ifta, a religious institution for fatwas (religious verdicts) in Egypt, was established with the aim of improving the image of Islam and to modify the religious discourse through addressing the phenomenon of “takfiri fatwas” (unrecognized fatwas often issued by extremist groups) and monitoring local and international media outlets.