A Kuwaiti Salafi MP attacked Sheikh Tantawi on the issue of Niqab

KUWAIT CITY - A member of the Sunni Salafi and conservative movement in Kuwait attacked Wednesday the imam of the mosque of Al-Azhar in Egypt, who said he was determined to ban the niqab (full veil) in schools depending on his mosque.

•     "The statements of Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi on niqab are shameful. He is known for his strange and abnormal fatwa (religious opinion)," Mohammad Hayef told reporters.
  
      During a tour last week in schools depending on the prestigious Cairo Mosque of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Tantawi was "surprised" at a high school for girls to see "one of the schoolgirls in niqab while she was in class, according to the daily al-Masri al-Yom.
  
      He then "was angry" and asked her to remove her veil, saying: "The niqab is a tradition, it has no connection with religion." The teenager had to remove the veil hiding her face and the sheikh said he was determined to ban it in schools under Al-Azhar authority.
  
      The niqab is a full veil that reveals only a thin slit for the eyes and is sometimes accompanied by gloves.
  
  Ennaharonline/ M. Oudina