Taroudant, Morocco- Egypt's top religious body demanded yesterday that a new X Factor-style competition for belly dancers Show be suspended for "corrupting morals" and serving "extremists" who could use it as a pretext to attack Egypt, according to AhramOnline.
Aired on the Al-Kahera Wal Nas TV channel, “AlRakisa” (the Belly Dancer), Egypt's first belly dancing reality show has been suspended after the first episode was aired Monday.
The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in a joint statement signed by several Islamic figures, including three Al-Azhar professors, slammed the show.
Dar Al-Ifta, a religious state-owned authority that makes fatwas (religious edicts) in Egypt, said that the show “could be understood as part of a campaign that seeks to destroy the moral structure of the religious people of Egypt and it serves extremists who take such matters as justification to promote the idea that society is fighting religion.”
The makers of the show say it aims to discover talented belly dancers and make competition between Egyptian and international belly-dancers.
The famous Egyptian belly dancer and actress known as Dina was among the three-member panel tasked with the mission of judging the performance of the dancers.
In an announcement on Tuesday, the TV said it postponed the show's second episode over the death of 11 soldiers in the northern Sinai Peninsula, without any reference to the ban.
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