CAIRO — The Salafist Call in Egypt announced Jan. 24 that banking interest is forbidden by Sharia, reviving the controversy over prohibiting or legitimizing banking interest in Egypt.
However, the Islamic Research Academy, Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah and Al-Azhar officially ruled that the practice is not forbidden. This comes after a number of leaders of the Salafist Call in Egypt opposed the 2014 purchase by Egyptians of new investment certificates in the Suez Canal project, stressing that they represent a form of usury and that the state should have funded the project publicly.