According to El Badil, Sheikh Ahmed al-Mahlawi recently gave a sermon in his popular Alexandrian mosque, where he warned the ulema (Islam’s scholars and theologians), from “appearing on TV programs with women who do not wear the hijab.” He pointed out that some make the excuse that, because they see non-veiled women all the time in the streets of Egypt, sitting with one at a TV studio should be fine as well. For Sheikh Mahlawi, however, the ulema have no choice about seeing non-veiled women in the streets, “since that is imposed on them,” but, where they have a say””such as whether to appear on TV with an unveiled woman””they must say no. He then proceeded to brag about how a female official from the U.S. Consulate wanted to meet with him, but he made her wear the hijab first. Finally, he culminated his sermon by warning against “those who do not wish to apply Allah’s Sharia, who love the West, and wish to implement homosexual marriage.”