Christians should wear veil: Cleric

CAIRO - Reuters

Many Egyptian viewers were horrified when preacher Hisham el-Ashry recently popped up on primetime television to say women must cover up for their own protection and advocated the introduction of religious police.

“I was once asked: If I came to power, would I let Christian women remain unveiled? And I said: If they want to get raped on the streets, then they can,” Ashry told Nahar TV last week. Introducing a Saudi-style anti-vice police force to enforce Islamic law was “not a bad thing,” he said, and added: “In order for Egypt to become fully Islamic, alcohol must be banned and all women must be covered.”

Egypt’s top Islamic institutions, such as al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, has long said religious practices should not be imposed on people. Egypt’s Grand Mufti, the country’s most senior Islamic legal official, has dismissed the self-styled preacher’s views.

“This sort of idiotic thinking is one that seeks to further destabilize what is already a tense situation,” Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa said in a statement.