A former official of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a current candidate for Egyptian president has given a TV interview in which he calls for the implementation of Islamic law in Egypt. According to a MEMRI translation:
Following are excerpts from Egyptian presidential candidate Bassem Khafaji, which aired on Al-Nas TV on March 7, 2012:
Bassem Khafaji: Let me tell you, in all honesty, that as a Muslim Egyptian, I am convinced of [the need to]complete the implementation of Islamic law in Egypt. I do not hide this truth in any way, because it is in keeping with the inclination of the Egyptian people.
We Egyptians – both Muslims and non-Muslims – refer to the shari’a in many things. I often ask people: How did you get married? Wasn’t it according to the shari’a, regardless of whether you are Muslim or not? Weren’t you married in accordance with your religion? When somebody in our family dies, how we inherit him? Not in accordance with the shari’a?
No [candidate]should say that he is coming to implement the shari’a, because part of it has already been implemented. What the Egyptian people want is to complete this implementation. As president, I will personally assist in the completion of the correct implementation of the shari’a, by consulting the experts [in Islamic law]. “
A report by The Investigative Project describes Khafagi’s background and his deportation from the U.S:
As late as November 1, 2002, Bassam Khafagi served as CAIR’s director of community relations. Awad claims that “Khafagi was never an ‘employee’ of CAIR. He was commissioned as an independent contractor for CAIR, effective November 2, 2001.” Khafagi was arrested in January 2003 and indicted in February that year on bank fraud charges.“At the time of his arrest,” the Associated Press reported, “he was community affairs director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group based in Washington.” In September 2003, he pleaded guilty to bank and visa fraud and agreed to be deported to Egypt. Khafagi also served as a founding member and president of the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA). IANA was investigated for money laundering and recruiting terrorists over the Internet; the FBI raided its offices in February 2003. IANA has created a dozen or more Web sites whose objective, prosecutors have stated in court papers, was the “dissemination of radical Islamic ideology, the purpose of which was indoctrination, recruitment of members and the instigation of acts of violence and terrorism.”According to corporate records, Khafagi served in a leadership position at IANA during the period that senior Al Qaeda recruiter Abdelrahman al-Dosari (a.k.a. Shaykh Abu Abdel Aziz “Barbaros”) spoke at IANA’s 1993, 1994 and 1995 conferences.