The past few months witnessed two noticeable attacks in the media on Imam Aḥmad al-Ṭayyib, Shaykh of al-Azhar. Last February, al-Ṭayyib was harshly criticized after old statements of his were discussed again and interpreted to permit “wife beating”.
On that day, Dār al-Iftāʾ tweeted, via its official Twitter account, that "men do not beat women," which was interpreted as a "pro-regime" message to al-Azhar.
In early July, discussions intensified on Twitter between the hashtags "Down with al-Azhar's rule" and "al-Azhar al-Sharif is the fortress of Islam", after al-Azhar's fatwa on the premise of the veil in Islam.
This time, Dār al-Iftāʾ issued a defensive statement saying, "Al-Azhar witnessed the sincerity and fairness of Islam and the tolerance of its legislation in building people and nations."
