CAIRO: Muslim Brotherhood MPs denied press reports claiming they filed investigation requests to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Minister of Higher Education Hany Hilal, asking them to close down the American University in Cairo (AUC).
Brotherhood MP Azab Mostafa Morsi said that the group’s parliamentary bloc never filed any requests related to the university.
Local press reported that Brotherhood and independent MPs filed the request to “protect national security and prevent any institution on Egyptian soil from conducting any research to be reported to a foreign body.
Independent MP Gamal Zahran also denied the news reports. He, however, confirmed that he filed an investigation request into the types of research the university is conducting.
“No one can ask to shut down AUC; it has been a long-standing educational institution. However, we need to understand what research is going on in there, he said.
Controversy shrouded AUC ever since independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm published two federal contracts, the first with the US Department of State and the second with the US Army, claiming that the university has been accepting these sums in secrecy, and implying that there is a hidden agenda.
In response, the university has confirmed the first contract and said the second was a mistake posted on the American official website, usspending.gov. It said the published articles were “misleading in their indirect reference to a “hidden agenda , especially that its contracts are a matter of public records.
