Egyptian imam banned from the air for 'sex-with-dead-wives' edict

Cairo, Sep 19 (IANS/AKI) Controversial cleric Sabri Abdel Raouf cannot go on television or radio, Egypt's top media watchdog ruled on Tuesday, after he said that Muslims could have sex with their wives' corpses, Al-Arabiya Arabic news channel reported on Tuesday.

The Supreme Council for Media Regulation decision bans Raouf - a professor at Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar university - from appearing on private or public satellite channels or to be hosted on radio stations.

Raouf's fatwa insults Islam and disrespects the sanctity of the dead, said the council's director Makram Mohammed Ahmed, quoted by Al-Arabiya.

The council has also banned TV programmes from discussing such issues and will appeal to the Al-Azhar - the leading authority on Sunni Islam - to investigate Raouf, Al-Arabiya quoted Ahmed as stating.

Raouf, known as Sheikh Sabri, denied issuing the fatwa, saying his comments during an interview with Egypt's private LTC channel on Sunday have been misrepresented.

In the TV interview, Raouf reportedly said that Islam does not consider sexual intercourse between a man and a dead woman as a 'sin' as long as the dead woman was his wife.

Although Raouf also reportedly said necrophilia was not a practice that society could easily accept or one in which a rational person would engage, his comments sparked outrage in Egypt.

Raouf was vilified on social media with users calling on the Egyptian government promptly put the preacher on trial.

--IANS

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