By Emir Nader
Egypt’s Grand Mufti has condemned the targeting of an army vehicle on Monday, which killed an officer and a conscript, and injured six others.
Grand Mufti Shawqy Allam described the roadside bomb on an armoured vehicle in the border town of Rafah as “despicable”. According to Reuters, the explosion took place in the Taweel Al-Amir area south of Rafah, with the injured taken to military hospital.
“The extremists corrupt the earth and threaten the security and stability of the country,” Allam said, before quoting a verse of the Quran: “Whoever fights Allah and the Prophet and corrupts the earth is condemned to be killed or crucified, or have their limbs cut off, or be exiled from their land, and they will be severely tortured in the next life.”
Allam is seen as the Egyptian government’s religious representative. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has called on Egypt’s religious institutions to lead a ‘religious revolution’ against extremist thinking in Islam.
“We will undo the plans of the terrorists and put them to death,” the Grand Mufti said, Monday, and sent his condolences to the families of those killed.
Egypt has been fighting a country wide insurgency that has claimed senior officials’ and foreigners’ lives. North Sinai has been the focus of militant action,
Egypt’s new anti-terrorism law, issued in mid-August, makes it an illegal offence to report information that differs from the government’s figures for terrorism attacks and operations.
Grand Mufti Allam, who signs off on death penalties in the Egyptian legal system, was found in June to have plagiarised the work of Muslim Brotherhood leader Sayyid Qutb in a Ramadan article about fasting.
