Egyptian cleric Wagdi Ghoneim gave an address on Al-Aqsa TV in Match in which he accused Israelis of spreading drugs and AIDS in Egypt. According to a MEMRI translation:
Following are excerpts from an address by Egyptian cleric in exile Wagdi Ghoneim, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on March 11, 2012. Wagdi Ghoneim : Our enemies are keeping our youth busy with nonsense, in order to turn them into idiotic fools. They wrote it all down in a book called The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. We call it The Protocols of the Ignorant Elders of Zion – we don’t call them ‘learned’ because they are not. […] The [Israelis] enter Egypt without a visa, bringing with them drugs. They bring heroin. Their girls who go to Sinai – to Sharm Al-Sheik and places like that – transmit AIDS to our youth. These girls wear shorts, and then they get naked, and fornicate with an Egyptian boy, leaving him a message: ‘Welcome to the AIDS club.'”
A post from February reported that Mr. Ghoneim was visiting Tunisia where his remarks on female genital mutilation (FGM) stirred up controversy. GMBDW has cataloged a lengthy set of Mr. Ghoneim’s other extremist statements and his support for violent Jihad.
Mr. Ghoneim is an Egyptian cleric known for his anti-Semitic speeches. In January 2005, Mr. Ghoneim agreed to be voluntarily deported from the U.S. based upon Department of Homeland Security concerns that his past speeches and participation in fund-raising activities could be supportive of terrorist organizations. Following deportations from Bahrain and South Africa, he appears to have settled in Qatar where MEMRI reported on remarks by Mr. Ghoneim which aired on Al-Jazeera TV and which praised violent Jihad and criticized the U.S. and Europe as “Godless” nations. Ghoneim is closely tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood and has been a frequent speaker or invited speaker at Brotherhood events including those sponsored by the Union of Islamic Organizations in Italy (UCOII), the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI), and the League of Swiss Muslims. Known for his anti-semitic speeches, global media have also reported that he is closely associated with Hamas. Ghoneim was recently identified as one of sixteen individuals on a Home office list of people banned from the U.K. on the basis of ” unacceptable behaviour by seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs and to provoke others to commit terrorist acts. In July, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that Mr. Ghoneim was added by Egyptian authorities to a list of 90 leaders of the “International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood”