![Al-Azhar officials have been answering questions from the public on a range of topics at a new fatwa kiosk in Cairo's al-Shuhadaa metro station. [Photo courtesy of Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee]](/cnmi_am/images/2017/08/15/9051-Egypt-Cairo-kiosk-700_496.webp)
Egypt's Al-Azhar has opened a fatwa kiosk at a busy metro station in Cairo as part of an effort to counter radical discourse by directly answering a range of questions on religious matters.
"Al-Azhar came up with the idea about a year ago with the aim of disseminating the correct concepts of Islam and countering extremism and intolerance," said Islamic Research Academy member Mohammad al-Shahat al-Jundi.
It established fatwa centres about a year ago inside Al-Azhar educational institutions in all Egyptian provinces, he told Al-Mashareq, adding that there are 80 in Cairo alone.
In an attempt to make the fatwa centres more accessible to ordinary people, Al-Azhar opened a fatwa kiosk inside the heavily trafficked al-Shuhadaa metro station.
Al-Shuhadaa's fatwa kiosk
Al-Mashareq paid a visit to the fatwa kiosk in al-Shuhadaa station, which is manned by three officials, including Ahmed Mahmoud, and operates 11 hours a day, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
"The number of visits by citizens to the kiosk is increasing steadily, indicating the success of the experiment and feasibility of implementing it in many other places," Mahmoud said.
During the one-hour visit, the fatwa kiosk received 12 people seeking fatwas on matters related to bank transactions, legitimacy of divorce in anger and the basics of Islamic jurisprudence.
The kiosk's officials also handed out free books on moderate religious thought.
"The kiosks are staffed with many knowledgeable clerics and scholars who are qualified to issue fatwas on personal matters such as marriage, divorce, purity, worship, transactions and relationships between Muslims and followers of other religions," Mahmoud said.
Some requests are referred to the main fatwa centre at Al-Azhar mosque so they can be thoroughly considered before a response is provided, he said.
These days, he added, most fatwa requests received at the kiosk are related to the annual hajj, as the season for the pilgrimage to Mecca is approaching.
Answering people's questions
Al-Mashareq spoke with one of the fatwa seekers, Mahmoud Shaaban, who works as an engineer.
Shaaban, who expressed his appreciation for Al-Azhar's efforts to keep Muslim youth from falling prey to extremist ideology, said he found it difficult to visit the main fatwa centre at Al-Azhar or those inside educational institutes.
"The presence of fatwa kiosks in metro stations made it much easier for me as I take the metro every day to work," he said.
"The kiosk receives about 122 fatwa requests a day related mostly to family problems and the issue of atheism," said Sheikh Ali Mustafa, another official at al-Shuhadaa metro station fatwa kiosk.
The fatwa official at Al-Azhar mosque stops by from time to time to lend a hand and personally answer the questions of the increasing number of fatwa seekers, he told Al-Mashareq.
In addition to answering questions posed by fatwa seekers, kiosk officials at the metro station also distribute hundreds of books to passersby, he added.
These books explain the precepts of Islam and provide a response to extremists who use religion as a cover to justify their terrorist crimes.
"Al-Azhar is the platform for teaching moderate Islam to Muslims around the world to protect them from being recruited by extremists," Mustafa said.
The fatwa committee wants to open new kiosks in public places and train more people to man the booths and respond to the religious and moral queries people pose, along with other questions related to their lives, he said.
Countering extremism with dialogue
Al-Azhar seeks to counter extremist ideology through dialogue and by helping people understand that moderate religious piety does not infringe upon the freedom of others, said Sheikh Mohammed Zaki Baddar, secretary general of Al-Azhar’s Higher Committee for Daawa and Iftaa.
"Extremists mislead the Muslim youth and claim that fighting other religions will please their creator and win them paradise in the afterlife," he told Al-Mashareq.
Al-Azhar is hard at work to correct this misconception, he said, and to let young people know that "Islam calls for tolerant co-existence with other religions and all human beings".
Al-Azhar has been instrumental in Egyptian efforts to counter extremist ideology, said Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies researcher Abu al-Fadl Mohammed.
The leading Sunni authority has succeeded in promoting moderate, centrist Islam, and seeks to embrace Muslim youth to prevent them from falling prey to extremist recruitment attempts, he told Al-Mashareq.
