Security was beefed up around Egypt‘s opposition leaders on Thursday after several hardline Muslim clerics issued religious edicts calling for them to be killed, raising fears of assassinations similar to that of a Tunisian opposition leader gunned down a day earlier in Tunisia.
Egypt‘s prime minister and the Muslim Brotherhood, which forms the backbone of the country’s leadership, condemned the edicts, or fatwas, and the top prosecutor launched an investigation against one of the clerics.
The slaying in Tunisia of opposition leader Chokri Belaid and the fatwas in Egypt have sparked an uproar in both countries and raised concerns that religious hard-liners could turn to killings to silence critics of Islamists’ rule.
In Egypt, hard-liners have reacted with fury to a wave of protests against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi since late January, which have turned into deadly clashes as police cracked down on the demonstrators. Aides to Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood officials have depicted the protesters as thugs and criminals and have accused opposition politicians of condoning or even fueling violence in an attempt to undermine Morsi.
Using similar rhetoric, several well-known hardline clerics the past week declared that punishments under Islamic law for those who cause chaos or try to overthrow the ruler apply to the protesters and opposition leaders — including death, crucifixion or amputations of limbs.
Another cleric suggested that violent sexual assaults of women protesters in Tahrir Square the past week were justified, calling them “either Crusaders (Christians) … or widows who have no one to rein them in.”
After criticism of government silence over the fatwas calling for killing opposition leaders, Prime Minister Hesham Kandil on Thursday warned that such edicts could lead to “sedition and disturbance.”
“These extremist edicts are not related to Islam,” Kandil said, according to the state news agency. “The Egyptian people had a glorious January Revolution for the sake of establishing a democratic society where dialogue prevails, not killing.”
A day earlier, Egypt‘s most prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the National Salvation Front, had said on his Twitter account, “Regime silent as another fatwa gives license to kill opposition in the name of Islam.”
Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Hani Abdel Latif said security authorities will increase patrols in residential areas where opposition leaders live in. He told the website of …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News