Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya
In 1990, Al-Azhar University succeeded in having banned Farag Foda's book "To Be or Not to Be". Foda was an outspoken critic of the repression by Islamic authorities in Egypt. Those authorities orchestrated a vicious campaign of lies to discredit and ruin Foda but Foda persisted in his criticism. On 3 June 1992, a group of "scholars" at Al-Azhar issued a communiqué which accused Foda of blasphemy. Five days later, two assassins from the group "al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya" shot Foda dead and wounded his son and several bystanders. Al-Azhar's Sheikh Muhammad al Ghazali had previously declared Foda an apostate, and said that Islamic law justified his killing. "Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya" accepted responsibility for the murder. The group declared, "Al-Azhar issued the sentence and we carried out the execution".