During a large electoral rally in support of Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohamed Mursi on May 1, Dr. Safawat Hijazi, a prominent Islamist figure in Egypt, predicted that under Musri’s leadership a new Islamic Caliphate will emerge with Jerusalem as its capital.
“We realized our dream of the Caliphate is being fulfilled by Dr. Mursi, his group and his party,” Hijazi told the crowd at the football stadium in El-Mahalla El-Kubra. “With his efforts, the united Arabs states will come true and its capital will be holy Jerusalem.”
These remarks were followed by a chant: “I am Egyptian with pride… tomorrow Mursi will liberate Gaza.” Hijazi responded by inciting the crowd with his own chant: “Come on, lovers of martyrdom…all of you are Hamas…Come on lovers of martyrs, all of you are Hamas.”
Hijazi, a member in the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), also told the crowd, “We will not accept from Dr. Mursi and the group anything less than the application of God’s Sharia’ in the land of Egypt.” He concluded by issuing a fatwa on election participation. “The one who does not go to vote in the elections is a sinner.”
Other prominent members of the Brotherhood attended the rally and gave speeches focusing on Mursi’s Islamic agenda.
The anti-Semitic miniseries Horseman Without A Horse, is back on Egyptian television. The 41-part series, which first appeared on Egyptian state television and other networks across the Middle East during Ramadan in 2002, is scheduled to be broadcast on Al-Tahrir TV.
Al-Tahrir TV, established after the 2011 revolution, claims to be an independent voice of the “new Egypt” that supports “Tahrir Square’s revolutionary youth and their principles.”
The series features the virulently anti-Semitic forgery “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” which has been used through the last century as an excuse to scapegoat and persecute Jews, as a major plot device.
The program, replete with gross anti-Semitic accusations and depictions, tells the story of scheming Jews, who in a bid to dominate Israel, the Middle East and the world, make efforts to hide the existence of the “book” [The Protocols], which would reveal their conspiracy.
Following the original broadcast of the miniseries, governments around the world spoke out to condemn it. While the Egyptian government did not officially comment on the program, its broadcast did provoke a discussion in the Egyptian media on the line between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel. Most notably, Osama El-Baz, a top political advisor to then-President Hosni Mubarak, condemned Egyptian anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial (while still vehemently criticizing Israel) in a series of articles in Egypt’s leading newspaper Al-Ahram.
Will government, political, religious and social leaders in post-revolutionary Egypt stand up and condemn the age-old demonization of Jews now appearing on Al-Tahrir TV?
Egyptian presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, who wants to abolish Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, has a history of promoting anti-Semitic narratives in his statements against Israel.
In an interview with Al Jazeera in February 2012, Ismail said, “There’s no such thing as the state of Israel. Palestine is from the river to the sea, as it’s said… The Jews are not here on Earth to be rulers.”
In an electoral rally a month before, Ismail attacked the Zionists’ efforts to organize trips to Israel from around the world. The crowds chanted in response: “Oh Jews of Khaibar, the army of Muhammad is here… Oh Jews of Khaibar, Hazem Abu Ismail is here,” evoking the Qur’an’s account of a battle between the prophet Muhammad and the Jews of the town of Khaibar that resulted in the subjugation of the Jews of Arabia.
During a 2011 appearance on the talk show on the Islamic Television channel Mureed Al Janna, Ismail described stories from Torah as sarcastic and scandalous and said that even Jews doubt their religion.
Ismail, who is backed by the Salafists, describes the Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israel as “scandalous and shameful” in his “Message to the Honorable Egyptian People who Bow to none but Allah,” which outlines his presidential program.
The detailed program, which is available on his campaign’s official website, also includes the following foreign policy note:
“We believe that Israel is illegitimate. Israel has no right in Palestine, but we will not collide with them now; we must stand up on our feet first before we think about standing on the confrontation line. Taking into account the interests of our country is above all other considerations, but this would not be at the expense of our pride and our dignity and our Arabic and Islamic relations.”
The same program calls for building a stronger relationship with Iran in order to both pressure the U.S. and gain economic aid from it at the same time.
During a lecture in February 2012, Ismael called Osama Bin Laden a martyr, saying that “I ask God to accept him among the martyr saints and the righteous ones…. We ask God to enable Muslims to revenge for his death.”
