Egypt's government condemns death fatwas

Cairo, Feb 7 (AP) Egypt's prime minister has condemned religious edicts by hardline Muslim clerics calling for the killing of opposition leaders and says the government is considering legal action against them. The state news agency says Hesham Kandil warned on today that such fatwas could lead to "sedition and disturbance." A day earlier, Egypt's most prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the National Salvation Front, criticised the government's silence over the edicts. A security official says ElBaradei's home has been put under observation for his protection. In one edit, ultraconservative cleric Mahmoud Shaaban said the Front's leadership is "setting Egypt on fire to gain power, and the verdict of God's law against them is death." Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world's premier Islamic institution, and Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group also condemned the fatwas. (AP) DBR 02072225 NNNN