Support for terrorists. Anti-Israel statements. Calling Jerusalem “Islamic” while dismissing its significance to Judaism and Christianity. Yes, the Egyptian opposition has shown its true colors by saying all of the above this week according to Ahram Online.
Oh, and they’re calling for renewed protests beginning Friday. Lest you forget, the bloody conflict last summer in Egypt involved clashes between these protestors and the army after a military coup.
Ahram reported that a statement by the opposition’s National Coalition to Support Legitimacy slammed the army’s counterterrorism efforts in the Sinai region.
Terrorists have long launched attacks in the Sinai and violence there surged over the summer. But the opposition group accused the Egyptian army of attacking locals, not terrorists. Such accusations by the opposition ring rather hollow.
When the statement also expressed anti-Israel sentiment and assailed those who would let Israel keep any part of their capital of Jerusalem, it makes this opposition group look even more extreme. The group slammed President Adly Mansour for referring to East Jerusalem – which is typically claimed by the Palestinians – implying they believe it all belongs to the Palestinians.
What’s more, the group even disparaged other religions claiming Jerusalem. It is Judaism’s capital city and where Jesus died and resurrected. But the Egyptian group decried those who declare that Jerusalem “is the capital of all religions in order to destroy its Arabic and Islamic identity.”
Considering the extreme positions of this group, the risk of violence in new protests in Egypt is definitely there. Gas prices won’t respond well to that.
It also highlights that the Egyptian army, for all their human rights flaws, aren’t the worst group in Egypt. At least not compared to the anti-Semitic, Islamic extremists that stand on the other side.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, October 24, 2013)