Rattlesnake Ridge      

 
      BFF
“Salafi leader Gamal al-Marakby has rebuked members of the Shia community in Egypt for intending to form a political party, declaring that Salafis will oppose the move. “We will fight them,” he said. “They should not be allowed such a thing.” Marakby revealed that the Shias also intend to publish a newspaper, which he claims will be financed by Iran. “The Shia have bizarre beliefs that contradict Islam and the Sunni faith,” he added. Shia leader Mohamed al-Dariny, for his part, criticized the Salafis. “They terrorize all who are against them and want to pull us into backwardness,” he said. “We are Egyptian citizens, and we have the right to form a party for ourselves.”…………..” Almasry Alyoum

The Salafis of Egypt stood by during the peak of the Revolution, even as their Saudi masters tried to keep Mubarak in power. Just as they stand by the repression in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, issuing fatwas in support. They have already picked serious fights with the Coptic Christians of Egypt, ending with the burning of houses of worship and many deaths. Now they are picking on another segment of Egyptian society: they want to disenfranchise the tiny Shi’a community. Mr. Mubarak liked to throw Shi’as in prison occasionally for ‘being who they are’ or maybe to keep his regional allies happy.

A bit of my version of history here: Egypt reached its peak Islamic glory under the Shi’a Fatimid Dynasty. Cairo is still called the Cairo of el-Mo’ezz (after a Fatimid Dynasty ruler), and al-Azhar was established by the same dynasty. Someone once said that Egyptians are Sunni by name and practice but still Shi’a by heart: that is probably true. I think the Egyptian (Sunni) Muslims probably have more in common with Arab Shi’as than they do with the Salafis, including Saudis, for example. Including a deep respect for history reflected in shrines and place names (Seyyda Zainab and  Hai el-Hussein as examples) and visitations of cemeteries.

Egyptian heritage and culture is much more complex, more advanced, than the simple exclusionary Wahhabi tenets of some Salafi shaikhs: it encompasses Islam, Christianity and what came down from the oldest civilization in the “Western” world. The Salafis would also probably cancel “Sham Ennissim”, the Spring Festival that has roots in pre-Islamic and pre-Christian and pre-Ptolemaic days.

The Salafis, like Wahhabism itself, are an anomaly in an Egyptian society that has been always ‘multicultural’ and mostly tolerant of others. They are now like the proverbial snake in the Garden of Revolution.
Cheers
mhg



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