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.

The bill would restrict the issuance of public edicts or fatwas to clerics and researchers affiliated with only four entities: Al-Azhar, the Ministry of Religious Endowments, Dar al-Ifta (official entity charged with issuing edicts) and Majma al-Buhuth al-Islamiya (Islamic Research Academy). Clerics should get permission from one of these entities before issuing any public fatwa on TV.

According to the bill, preachers and professors of Al-Azhar University could perform their tasks of preaching to people without being obliged to get permission, since preaching is not considered a public fatwa. But if they wanted to issue a certain public fatwa, they should first obtain a license from one of the four entities.