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Al-Azhar, Salafist group spar over banking interest

The Salafist Call in Egypt issued a fatwa prohibiting banking interest in a move that could push Egyptians to either keep their money at home or in Islamic banks.
People buy Suez Canal investment certificates at a bank in Cairo September 4, 2014. Egypt issued government certificates to finance the Suez Canal project on Monday, state media said, as the country aims to expand trade along what is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia. The five-year investment certificates have a 12 percent interest rate and pay quarterly dividends and will come in 10, 100 and 1,000 Egyptian pound ($1.40-$140) denominations, MENA said. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (EGYPT - Tags: BUS
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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.

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