An Egyptian jihad leader, with self-professed links to the Taliban, called for the "destruction of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt," drawing ties between the Egyptian relics and Buddha statues, local media reported this week. | Brilliant. As Instapundit, channeling our periwinkle moderator, notes, "You import half your calories. Your biggest source of foreign exchange is tourism. So what do you do?" |
"All Muslims are charged with applying the teachings of Islam to remove such idols, as we did in Afghanistan when we destroyed the Buddha statues," he said on Saturday during a television interview on an Egyptian private channel, widely watched by Egyptian and Arab audiences.
"God ordered Prophet Mohammed to destroy idols," he added. "When I was with the Taliban we destroyed the statue of Buddha, something the government failed to do."
| So he's the one! We can hang him for that too... |
| Only because they didn't have dynamite in those days... |
Gohary, 50, is well-known in Egypt for his advocacy of violence, Egypt Independent reported.
| So he's especially pious... |
| Worked well... |
| Next time just shoot him... |
Islamists have swept the recent presidential and parliamentary elections in the country's post-revolutionary stage, with the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists rising to political power.
"The fundamental Salafis have demanded to cover Pharaonic statues, because they regard them to be idols," Egyptian author on ancient history Ahmed Osman told Al Arabiya English, explaining that Salafi Muslims follow conservative religious principles which view statues and sculptures as prohibited in Islam.
"But so far the government has done nothing to indicate what is the future of Egyptian antiquities," adds Osman.