CAIRO, August 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning for Sunni Islam, said Thursday, August 28, it would question one of its scholar over a controversial fatwa banning dealings with the U.S.-handpicked Iraqi Governing Council and declaring it "illegitimate", and denied reports of sacking him.

"No decision was taken to suspend or lay off Sheikh Nabawi Mohamad al-Ish. There will be an internal investigation only," a spokesman for Al-Azhar told the state-run Egypt's official MENA news agency.

Earlier, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted an official from Al-Azhar as saying Ish was suspended from work over the issue.

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi has asserted that al-Ish "does not represent Al-Azhar."

"No Egyptian scholar has the right to pass verdict on the affairs of another country," said the top Sunni scholar in a statement carried by the state-run official MENA news agency.

"I cannot overstep the Iraqi sheikhs and proclaim fatwas on matters that concern them. Iraqi ulema (scholars) have to pronounce their opinion on this matter as they are more familiar with their own affairs."

Ish, a member of Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee, had sparked a storm on Tuesday, August 26, with a fatwa that the Iraqi council "lacks religious and secular legitimacy, as it had been imposed on the Iraqis under the power of occupation and does not conform to Islam’s established principle of shura (counseling)."

His comments came amid strong U.S. pressure on Arab states to give more support to the council by allowing it to take up Iraq's seat in regional bodies such as the Arab League.

After the controversial fatwa, Sheikh Tantawi received U.S. Ambassador to Egypt David Welch.

During the meeting, the top scholar called on Washington and London "to take action so that the Iraqi people could take charge of its own destiny."

According to the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat, Welch questioned the timing of the fatwa and said it ran counter to the interests of the Iraqi people.

Observers said that Arab countries fear the recognition of the council could appear to be giving it a status of a full-fledged government and undermine their efforts to pressure the U.S. and British forces into ending their occupation now in its fifth month and turn over power into the hands of Iraqis.