Too radical for the radicals?
Egypt cleric ‘to ban full veils’
Even the  headbanger chiefs  are running scared of the current trend towards Talibanization: Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university, called full-face veiling a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith.
Update: Fatwa Reversed:
That didn’t last long, did it? From Al Jizz
Shaikh Ali Abu al-Hasan, the former head of the Fatwa Council at the Islamic Studies Institute (ISI) in Cairo, said although it was not required by Islam for women to cover their faces, Al-Azhar University should allow women to chose what they want to wear.
“No official has the right to order a young lady to remove a form of dress that was sanctioned by none other than Umar ibn al-Khattab, except for the purposes of identification for security reasons,” he said.
“The niqab [face veil] is not in contravention of the sharia or Egyptian law.”
Shaikh Safwat Hijazi, a scholar and preacher, said he would personally sue anyone who prevented his daughter or wife wearing full niqab from going about her daily life, including entering government offices.
“Preventing a woman from wearing what she wants is a crime,” Hijazi said. “Whoever says the niqab is a custom is not respectable.” (hmm, usually its not whether these women want to wear it. Its more common to kill them if they don’t../ed)
The niqab has become increasingly popular among Egypt’s Muslim radicals
H/T Vlad Tepes
BBC NEWS… Egypt’s highest Muslim authority has said he will issue a religious edict against the growing trend for full women’s veils, known as the niqab.
Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university, called full-face veiling a custom that has “nothing to do with the Islamic faith.”
You may recall that at his infamous Cairo speech in June, President Obama talked about the ‘right’ of Muslim women to wear the veil. At the time, many people ridiculed the statement, because women are far more likely to be forced to wear the veil than they are to be penalized for wearing it voluntarily.
Related links:
Although most Muslim women in Egypt wear the Islamic headscarf, increasing numbers are adopting the niqab as well.
The practice is widely associated with more radical trends of Islam.
The niqab question reportedly arose when Sheikh Tantawi was visiting a girls’ school in Cairo at the weekend and asked one of the students to remove her niqab.
The Egyptian newspaper al-Masri al-Yom quoted him expressing surprise at the girl’s attire and telling her it was merely a tradition, with no connection to religion or the Koran.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former member of the Dutch parliament, now lives in Washington, D.C., where she is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She is working on a follow-up to best-selling memoir, “Infidel.” 
