Free Republic

‘Destroy The Idols,’ Egyptian Jihadist Calls For Removal Of Sphinx, Pyramids Monday, 12 November 2012By AL ARABIYA Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Islamist leader twice-sentenced under former President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, called on Muslims to remove such “idols.” (Courtesy: Dream TV) An Egyptian jihad leader, with self-professed links to the Taliban, called for the “destruction of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt,” drawing ties between the Egyptian relics and Buddha statues, local media reported this week. Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Islamist leader twice-sentenced under former President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, called on Muslims to remove such...

The pyramids at Giza are the most stunning sight I have ever seen. True, their lonely eminence is threatened by Cairo's unlicensed building sprawl, with half completed houses inching their way towards them. Surveying them at night as the calls to prayer multiplied into a thunder of sound from central Cairo already told me a few years back what was coming. For now members of the Nour (The Light) Salafist party, which won 20 per cent of the vote in recent elections, are talking about putting an end to the 'idolatry' represented by the pyramids. This means destruction - along...

With the Egyptian economy already worsening since the revolution began in January, Muslim Brotherhood operatives are demanding stricter regulations on behavior and dress that could damage the country's tourism industry. The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which functions as the Brotherhood's political wing, wants to ban alcohol consumption on Egyptian streets and ban bikinis on the beach. "Beach tourism must take the values and norms of our societies into account," FJP Secretary-General Muhammad Saad al-Katatny told Egyptian tourism officials Monday. "We must place regulations on tourists wishing to visit Egypt, which we will announce in advance." For their part, Egyptian...

Saad al-Katatny was elected chairman of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, Egyptian media reported Friday. He beat out FJP’s acting leader Essam al- Erian in a vote that took place October 6. The FJP is Egypt’s largest political party, currently occupying 47 percent of all seats in the country’s lower house of parliament. Katatny hailed his election as “a first step” towards achieving the goals of the FJP, according to Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper. In this respect, Katatny was quoted as saying that “The Muslim Brotherhood established the [FJP] to represent the Brotherhood’s political project,...