The Committee of Religious Affairs in Egypt's parliament approved May 4 a draft law criminalizing the release of public religious edicts without a license. The bill was approved in the presence of Grand Mufti Shawki Allam and Minister of Religious Endowments Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa.
Under the bill, clerics who do not abide by the provisions of the bill would be subject to up to six months in jail or face a fine up to 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($274), or both. It stipulates that if any cleric repeats this violation, the penalty would be both imprisonment and a fine of at least 10,000 pounds.