even in firefox!

strikeout works in preview, but not in the posted comment.

i meant to strikeout jihaadi, and replace it with hirgabi. 

but I am assuming that at least for Egypt, it will be tatamount to law, as the Egyptian grand-mufti (or whatever title they choose in translation) is appointed by the government, as far as I know.

But both him and the head of Azhar carry some clout for sure - it is still one of the most respected institutions of Islamic learning in the Muslim world - people from as far as China and Malaysia still go there to study today. Sh. Ali Juma'a is also well respected in traditional circles as well as "reformist", as he is a traditionally trained muhaddith (hadith memorizer and transmitter) amongst other things, as far as I was told.

Perhaps Willow can supply some more details on this though. Hope it was of some help. 

Yes and no. Al Azhar came into existence right at the end of the age of caliphates (around 1000AD, making it the oldest continuously operative institution of higher learning on the planet), so it has a degree of authority and influence that no other Muslim institution has, including the see of Mecca, since Mecca has swapped hands on numerous occasions. (Yes, I am borrowing 'see' from the Catholics.) A local imam could contradict an edict from Azhar (unless he was in Egypt, where Azhari fatwas are legally binding) but only the most unserious of believers would take the word of the imam down the street over that of Azhar. Muslims, contrary to popular belief, are capable of prioritizing.

I'd like to point out that Christianity has no 'central authority' either. Catholicism has the Pope, but the Protestants have nothing similar, and the vast majority of Christians in the US are Protestant. (And, funnily enough, were volubly suspicious of Catholics for submitting to a supreme authority right up through the election of JFK. Remember the "Pope will rule the White House" stuff? I find this sudden change of heart toward centralized religious authority a little too convenient, personally.) This does not lead your average Muslim to blame apple-pie Methodists for failing to keep a lid on the snake handlers. The 'central authority' argument against All Progress Islamic is sorely lacking in a sense of reciprocity.  

Thanks for bringing these issues to the fore, where they can be civilly discussed. You're doing a great service. 

Hi Isis, thanks for your thoughts, and glad you're liking the Cassandra essay. It's going to become the crux of a book in a few months once I get a few other projects sorted out.

As for fiction, funny you should ask--later this week I'll be posting an interview with a professor who is editing an upcoming must-read collection of new Iraqi fiction. I agree with you re: historical fiction; I think when it's done very well, there's an intuitive truth that arises that you wouldn't get from a straight historical treatise. A humanness maybe. I'm afraid that modern Arab fiction runs to brutal relentless realism--some people love it, but I personally would feel more edified by being hit repeatedly in the head with a shovel. AH, you know what you should read: The Black Album by Hanif Koureshi. It's not about the Middle East per se; it's about the ideological and emotional struggles of a young British-Pakistani guy in the late 1980s. Koureshi is so deft that the material doesn't seem nearly as heavy as I'm making it sound. It's very funny and sad and slighty surreal. His other books are also good: My Beautiful Laundrette and My Son the Fanatic.