Al-Azhar Bans Joining the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’

Al-Azhar Bans Joining the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’
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Al-Azhar Bans Joining the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’

Al-Azhar Bans Joining the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’

Al-Azhar Fatwa Global Center said that joining the Muslim Brotherhood, which is blacklisted by Egypt, is forbidden according to Shariah law and that God has forbidden division and disagreement.

The renowned fatwa center, in its announcement, said that God forbids people from pursuing any path that distracts them from following the truth, explaining that keeping to the Qur’an and the Sunnah, in accordance with Shariah, was the only way to please God.

“It is clear to the public what these groups have done in distorting some texts, cutting them out of their context, and using them to achieve personal goals or interests and corrupting the land,” the center said in the fatwa.

“Membership in these extremist groups is considered forbidden by Shariah,” it added.

Egyptian authorities have labeled the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group since November 2014.

Hundreds of members and leaders of the organization are being tried on charges related to inciting or committing violence.

In mid-November, Saudi Arabia’s Council of Senior Scholars had also blacklisted the group.

“The Muslim Brothers’ Group is a terrorist group and [does not] represent the method of Islam, rather it blindly follows its partisan objectives that are running contrary to the guidance of our graceful religion, while taking religion as a mask to disguise its purposes in order to practice the opposite such as sedition, wreaking havoc, committing violence, and terrorism,” the council said.

In 2014, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates officially designated the group as a terrorist organization “to keep sedition at bay.” Bahrain and Egypt soon followed suit.

The countries have urged the public to stay away from the organization and not sympathize with its actions.

Khaled al-Jundi, a preacher and member of Egypt's Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, said that the Islamic world has long awaited Al- Azhar’s announcement.



Lebanese Begin Grim Task of Recovering Bodies from Rubble

 Rescuers use an excavator as they search for dead bodies through the rubble of a destroyed house, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Ainata village, south Lebanon. (AP)
Rescuers use an excavator as they search for dead bodies through the rubble of a destroyed house, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Ainata village, south Lebanon. (AP)
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Lebanese Begin Grim Task of Recovering Bodies from Rubble

 Rescuers use an excavator as they search for dead bodies through the rubble of a destroyed house, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Ainata village, south Lebanon. (AP)
Rescuers use an excavator as they search for dead bodies through the rubble of a destroyed house, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Ainata village, south Lebanon. (AP)

In the southern Lebanon border villages of Bint Jbeil and Ainata, where fierce fighting between Israel and Hezbollah fighters took place, rescuers used excavators began searching on Wednesday for bodies under the rubble.

A woman in Ainata wrapped in black cried as she held a portrait her grandson, a Hezbollah fighter, who was killed in the fighting, as she waits for rescuers to recover his body from a destroyed home.

The smell of death filled the air and several dead bodies could be seen inside houses and between trees. In the town of Kfar Hammam, rescuers recovered four bodies, according to Lebanese state media.

Meanwhile, families and politicians visited the graves of Hezbollah fighters buried in eastern Lebanon's Baalbek region.

Families with tears in their eyes paid respects to the dead and celebratory gunshots could be heard in the background Wednesday, the first day of a ceasefire between the group and Israel.

“The resistance (Hezbollah) will stay to defend Lebanon,” Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Mokdad told reporters while visiting the graves. “We tell the enemy that the martyrs thwarted their plans for the Middle East.”

Several other Hezbollah members of parliament were present.