US media is reporting on Egyptian President’s Morsi’s decision to cut ties with Syria and backing a no-fly zone over the country. According to an NBC News report:
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
June 16, 2013 CAIRO – Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said he had cut all diplomatic ties with Damascus on Saturday and backed a no-fly zone over Syria, pitching the most populous Arab state more firmly against President Bashar al-Assad.
Addressing a rally called by Sunni Muslim clerics in Cairo, the Sunni Islamist head of state also warned Assad’s ally, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite militia Hezbollah, to pull back from fighting in Syria.
‘Hezbollah must leave Syria. These are serious words,’ said Mursi, whose country hosted a conference of Sunni clerics this week who issued a call for holy war against Damascus. ‘
There is no space or place for Hezbollah in Syria,’ Mursi said.
The rally underscored the region’s deepening sectarian rift. A cleric who spoke before Mursi described Shi’ites as heretics, infidels, oppressors and polytheists.
It was also a show of support for Mursi as his opponents mobilise for protests to demand early presidential elections.
Mursi waved Syrian and Egyptian flags as he entered the auditorium packed with 20,000 supporters. The crowd chanted: ‘From the free revolutionaries of Egypt: We will stamp on you, Bashar!’
Mursi, a Muslim Brotherhood politician, steered clear of direct references to Shi’ites and Iran but in a partial allusion to Tehran, he accused states in the region and beyond of feeding ‘a campaign of extermination and planned ethnic cleansing’ in Syria.Read the rest here.
An Egyptian media report said that Morsi promised to send financial aid to the Syrian rebels.
Three days ago, a conference was held in Cairo that reportedly included more than 70 religious organizations from across the Arab world and titled “The Scholars Stance Towards The Syrian Problem.” The event, as reported on an Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood forum, seems appears to have been jointly organised by various Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood umbrella groups in the Middle East and Europe together with the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign (GAAC). The GACC is an international Islamist umbrella group which is comprised of Islamist scholars tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood as well as Salafi-Jihadi scholars including individuals designated as terrorists by the US government. In addition to Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, the Cairo conference featured:
Saudi Sheikh Mohammed Al-Arifi, a Saudi cleric known for controversial statements.
Sheikh Hassan Aboud, head of the Salafi-Jihadsti Ahrar Al-Shaam rebels’ militia.
Salah Sultan, close to Qaradawi and known for the virulence of his anti-Semitic statements.
According to a MEMRI translation of the conference statement, the participants called on Sunni Muslims to support the Syrian rebels “through every kind of jihad, including armed military jihad, financial jihad, and any other kind of assistance that can save them “from the deadly and criminal fist of the sectarian regime.”
The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch has been covering the growing demand coming from the global Brotherhood for supporting the Syrian rebels:
Earlier this month, a post reported that in what was widely described in the Middle East as a “call to Jihad” Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi called on Sunni Muslims to join the Syrian rebels and sharply criticized Iran and Hezbollah talleging that Iran wants “continued massacres to kill Sunnis.”
One day later, a post reported that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood had condemned the Hezbollah intervention into the Syrian conflict blaming it on Iran and saying it will destroy “what was left of (Hezbollah’s) credibility.”
One week later, a post reported that the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), headed by Qaradawi, had called for a “Day of Rage and Support” in support of Syrian opposition forces .
Last week, a post reported that Dr. Salah Sultan, close to Qaradawi and noted for his virulent anti-Semitism had led televised prayers during which he described Hezbollah as “the party of Satan” and called for “‘God, break the backs of Bashar and his supporters.”
