NOVANEWS
Islamists accused of igniting sectarian splits
- By Ramadan Al Sherbini
Cairo: A sudden proliferation of Islamic street posters has irked the Egyptian government, which has condemned them as designed to spark sectarian tensions in the country.
“Have you prayed for the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, today?” reads the small poster, copies of which have been pasted up on building walls and cars across the predominantly Muslim country in recent weeks. No one has claimed responsibility for the posters, which authorities have started to tear apart.
Police removed around 1,000 such posters from cars in one week, saying they violate traffic regulations, according to local media.
The massive spread of the signs comes amid a deep polarisation that has gripped Egypt since July last year when the army deposed Islamist president Mohammad Mursi following enormous protests against his troubled one-year rule.
“These posters will be erased soon,” Interior Minister Mohammad Ebrahim said last week. “Their spread may have been motivated by a desire to trigger sectarianism in Egypt.”
Christians account for around 10 per cent of Egypt’s 85 million population. They are among the staunch supporters of recently elected President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, who led the army’s overthrow of Mursi.
“Despite the importance of praying for the prophet, this should be done inside places of worship, not out in the streets,” Minister of Waqfs (Religious Endowments) Mohammad Jumaa said. “The fact that no one is known to stand behind these posters suggests that the aim is sinister.”
Religious authorities have recently tightened their hold on mosques across Egypt, depriving Islamists of traditional strongholds, mainly in rural areas. Under a recent presidential decree, clerics, not approved by the Ministry of Waqfs, risk fines and jail terms if they deliver mosque sermons without official permits.
While stopping short of taking responsibility for the posters, Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood has called the security crackdown on them a “war on Islam and a blatant defiance of the pious Egyptians’ sentiment”.
Pro-Mursi activists have vowed to raise placards carrying the same phrase in street protests they plan on July 3, which marks the first anniversary of the Islamist leader’s overthrow.
“We’ll write this slogan in spite of its haters,” Montassar Al Zayat, a well-known Islamist lawyer, posted on his Facebook page.
In a recent TV interview, Al Sissi has accused Islamists, mainly the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, of manipulating religion to make political gains.
A recently adopted constitution bans the establishment of political parties based on religious grounds, throwing the future of several Islamist parties into uncertainty.
Some political experts have backed the government’s suspicion of the religious posters and the ensuing clampdown. “The spread of these posters at this particular time is aimed at reviving the phenomenon of lending a religious touch to the public life in Egypt in the run-up to parliamentary elections,” said Emad Jad, an analyst at the state-run Al Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies. Egyptians are expected later this year to elect a new parliament likely to be dominated by Al Sissi’s backers.
”These posters have appeared although we have a traffic law banning cars from displaying such signs and another on election prohibiting the use of religious slogans. Therefore state institutions should act strictly to enforce the law.”
