Egypt's highest religious authority has ordered the banning and confiscation of two books written by U.S. and Egyptian authors on grounds they violated Islamic principles and harmed Islam's image, a senior cleric and newspaper reports said Wednesday.
Al-Azhar University, considered by many to be the world's leading Sunni Islam seat of learning, ordered the ban against the "Studies of Muslim Apocalyptic," by U.S. writer David Cook, 37, and "Responsibility for the Failure of the Islamic State," by Egyptian author Gamal al-Banna.
A senior member of Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Cook's work was among a list of books reviewed and deemed as damaging to Islam's image by a committee of 35 clerics. He refused to elaborate.
In May, the Justice Ministry gave Al-Azhar clerics power to search and seize books from Cairo streets after deeming that they don't to conform with Islamic principles. But intellectuals and human rights advocates have launched campaigns against religious interference in freedom of speech here.
Cook, an assistant professor of Islamic Studies at Rice University, Texas, was surprised by Al-Azhar's decision, but said, "I have to wear that as a badge of honor, since if Al-Azhar bans me then I must have said something of significance."
Cook told The Associated Press he hadn't been officially notified of the banning, but said the move surprised him because "it really is just a scholarly book, not a best seller."
He said the book centers on Muslim apocalyptic beliefs and traditions about the end of the world, and that they were part of a general scenario shared by - and derived from - Jewish and Christian beliefs.
"Al-Azhar is very sensitive about the question of Islamic sources being taken from other religious traditions," Cook said. "Or perhaps they think that the sources that I used, some of which are not acceptable in contemporary Sunni discourse, despite their antiquity, painted Islam in a way they didn't like."
The pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper reported Wednesday that Al- Azhar had ordered the confiscation of a second book written by Al- Banna, brother of the founder of Egypt's largest Islamic group, the Muslim Brotherhood.
The author wasn't available for comment.
Al-Hayat said Al-Azhar deemed the book had violated Islam by "mentioning that the dress code of the Muslim woman should be conservative, but doesn't necessarily mean she has to wear the veil."
One of the first books seized was "The Fall of the Imam," a 1987 novel by outspoken feminist Nawal el-Saadawi which has been translated into 14 languages.
The book tells the story of the
illegitimate daughter of a senior Islamic cleric who despises the hypocrisy
of her male-dominated society that claims to be religious. The cleric is
shot dead during a festival.