Wagdy Ghoneim Arrested
Egyptian cleric Wagdy Ghoneim has been arrested in South Africa, according to
Ikhwan Online (via the
Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report).
No reason was given for the arrest. Ghoneim is a highly controversial figure who has nevertheless been a featured speaker at various U.S. events. A
declassified State Department cable obtained by INTELWIRE describes some of the views of this "avowed Muslim Brother." An excerpt follows:
The message propagated by Ghoneim is bluntly anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, and anti-Western.
Observant muslims are admonished to avoid Western clothes, Western music, even to avoid shaking hands with non-Muslims.
Christian beliefs are mocked in a crude fashion -- for example, Ghoneim, in one tape, snarlingly asks how anyone can worship a savior who had bodily functions and odors.
Ghoneim accuses the [Egyptian government] of favoring the Christian minority by allowing the building of fifty new churches per year (a figure that would surprise several local priests who cannot even obtain permission to repair, for example, caved-in roofs).
Ghoneim also charges that Copts are using monasteries and convents to hide arms that eventually will be used against Muslims. The increasingly obvious problem of drug abuse is depicted not only as a straying from god's established rules, but as the result of a Zionist-American conspiracy against the Islamic "Umma."
