More news from the cultural center of the Arab region: the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheykh Ali Gomaa, has issued a fatwa condemning sculptors and their work as shirk (idolatry; the most serious offense against Islam). The extremely reactionary edict denounces the use of statues for decoration as haram (forbidden). While it does not mention statues in museums or parks explicitly, the implication is that these too are in violation of shari’a.

Based at the ancient mosque-cum-university al-Azhar, Gomaa is widely seen as a puppet for Mubarak’s regime. Like the cartoon outrage, this might thus be an attempt by the establishment to bolster its religious credentials. Anyhow, Sheykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the popular al-Jazeera “televangelist” who was key to stirring up said outrage, supports the edict.

Interestingly though, the Muslim Brotherhood — the Islamist opposition that dominates Egypt’s civil society and is well represented in Parliament through independents — takes a different tack: “The people are more concerned with corruption. What they would like to see is a fatwa banning the presence of the same people at the helm of the country for 25 years and not against statues,” a spokesman tells al-Jazeera. That doesn’t mean the Brothers necessarily reject the edict as a matter of principle (they probably disagree on that) but it proves once again that they know what most irks the masses about the status quo.

It will be an interesting time ahead when the 77-year old Mubarak strains to transfer power to some much weaker heir — most likely his not too bright son Gamal — as the Brothers prepare to finally grab the reins. Who knows, perhaps they will grant him a statue?

It’s a story that is dead but won’t lie down. Egyptian Sandmonkey reports that the Syndicate of Egyptian Cartoonists now strikes back “as a response to those who fell under the thrall of racism, forgery and crime.”

The somewhat tardy riposte ran as a spread in Al Fagr — the newspaper which, as Sandmonkey revealed back in February, was the first outside Denmark to republish the doodles from Hell. Unsurprisingly, several of the counter-cartoons trot out the good ol’ Evil Joos:

Well, what to say? Classy.

Arthur Koestler’s neologism ‘mimophant’ clearly applies to the folks behind this: they combine the robustness of a mimosa with the delicate tact of an elephant. But in the same breath to cry up about racism is, I’m afraid, outright pathological.

One more thing, to both the hapless Danish draughtsmen (still with police protection, sadly) and these Egyptians: it is possible to be hard-hitting, elegant and witty all at once. Actually many cartoonists manage to, including my award-winning compatriot Finn Graff at Dagbladet. Here, for instance, is Graff on mandatory religious education in kindergartens:

On the mindset of Ayatollah Khomeini:

On neo-colonialism:

Just saying.

In a Zimbabwe refusing to seek food aid, Harare’s town clerk comments on the 20 or so corpses of newborn found each week in the city sewer:

I suppose one could put it that way.