Destroy the idols,’ Egyptian jihadist calls for removal of Sphinx, Pyramids

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**Frazzled**

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/12/249092.html

Destroy the idols,’ Egyptian jihadist calls for removal of Sphinx, Pyramids
Monday, 12 November 2012

Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Islamist leader twice-sentenced under former President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, called on Muslims to remove such “idols.” (Courtesy: Dream TV) inShare.35 By AL ARABIYA

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.

Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Islamist leader twice-sentenced under former President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, called on Muslims to remove such “idols.”

“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.”

His comments came a day after thousands of ultraconservative Islamists gathered in Tahrir Square to call for the strict application of Sharia law in the new constitution.

But in retaliation to Gohary’s remarks, the vice president of Tunisia’s Ennahda party, Sheikh Abdel Fattah Moro, called the live program and told Gohary that famous historic military commander Amr ibn al-Aas did not destroy statues when he conquered Egypt.

“So who are you to do it?” he wondered. “The Prophet destroyed the idols because people worshiped them, but the Sphinx and the Pyramids are not worshiped.”

Gohary, 50, is well-known in Egypt for his advocacy of violence, Egypt Independent reported.

“He was sentenced twice, one of the two sentences being life imprisonment. He subsequently fled Egypt to Afghanistan, where he was badly injured in the American invasion. In 2007, he traveled from Pakistan to Syria, which then handed him over to Egypt. After Mubarak's fall in early 2011, he was released from prison by a judicial ruling,” the newspaper added.

In recent months, fears have surfaced that the ultra-conservative Salafi political powers may soon wish to debate new guidelines over Egyptian antiquities.

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.

Many hope that Egypt’s new President Mohammed Mursi will help usher better preservation of Egypt’s proud cultural heritage. Egyptian officials have recently announced the country will reveal more of its ancient buried treasures.

The tomb of Queen Meresankh III, the granddaughter of Khufu, of Great Pyramid fame, is set to be opened to tourists later this year, with the last resting places of five high priests also slated to be put on show.

Officials are also believed to be reopening the underground Serapeum temple at Sakkara, to the south of Cairo.

[Related article: The Jinx of the Sphinx: How Egypt’s ‘exploited’ past came full circle: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/09/11/237360.html]

**Krellnus**

Maybe if the Sphinx, the pyramids and Buddha weren't deities, what he is saying my make slightly more sense than, "I'm one bat short of a belfry"?

**kronk**

If you removed the Pyramids and the Sphinx, all you'd have left is a gak-hole.

**LordofHats**

kronk wrote:
If you removed the Pyramids and the Sphinx, all you'd have left is a gak-hole.

Uh yeah this. The Egyptian ruins, idols, and monuments, IS Egypt's tourism industry, a huge part of their economy and their history.

**htj**

Wait, so a Jihadist extremist isn't considering the tourist industry when he calls for religious-backed destruction? How unusual!

**LordofHats**

htj wrote:
Wait, so a Jihadist extremist isn't considering the tourist industry when he calls for religious-backed destruction? How unusual!

Yeah, I mean they're often so considerate

**Experiment 626**

When can we send in the secret "it wasn't us" kill team to but a sniper's bullet through this useless piece of crap's brain?

And he's not a fundamentalist - he's an extremist.
A fundamentalist is simply someone who follows the tenents of their religion as closely to the worded text as possible. The Koran doesn't preach violence, it doesn't give men powers over women and it doesn't call for the destruction of other religions!

The stupid

hole is simply another deluded extremist who's twisted and perverted the muslim faith to suit his cruel and barbaric views. There is absolutely nothing supporting Sharia Law in the Koran, as a couple of my muslim friends have explained to me.
The west should stop pandering to these fools and deal with them the way they should be delt with - with bullets between their eyes!

**Frazzled**

kronk wrote:
If you removed the Pyramids and the Sphinx, all you'd have left is a gak-hole.

I had thought that too. Egypt without the pyramids is just...Libya.

**Tibbsy**

Frazzled wrote:
kronk wrote:
If you removed the Pyramids and the Sphinx, all you'd have left is a gak-hole.

I had thought that too. Egypt without the pyramids is just...Libya. with a big-ass river

Fix'd

**KalashnikovMarine**

Jihadis vs. Archeologists and the Egytpian Bureau of Antiquities.

Yeah my money's on the latter, those guys are nuts.

**juraigamer**

Conservatives and religion causing trouble, who knew?

I'd say anyone would be hard pressed to find someone who worshiped the sphinx or pyramids, aside from the freemasons.

**kronk**

KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Jihadis vs. Archeologists and the Egytpian Bureau of Antiquities.

Yeah my money's on the latter, those guys are nuts.

Seriously. No one feths with Zahi Hawass!

**MeanGreenStompa**

KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Jihadis vs. Archeologists and the Egytpian Bureau of Antiquities. And all the folks making money from the 'idols'...

Yeah my money's on the latter, those guys are nuts.

Fixed and agreed...

**Frazzled**

MeanGreenStompa wrote:
KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Jihadis vs. Archeologists and the Egytpian Bureau of Antiquities. And all the folks making money from the 'idols'...

Yeah my money's on the latter, those guys are nuts.

Fixed and agreed...

My money's on the former. If I am wrong everything works out and I still win.

**streamdragon**

The destruction of the buddha statues in afghanistan waz a fairly huge cultural loss for the world. They were massive works of art that are now gone. I know there are groups of muslims who dont seem to care about historic things beyond the written word (see the Saudi work on mecca for an example) but for the rest of the world...

I dunno. It seems like a huge loss for things that arent actually being worshipped as idols.

**Frazzled**

streamdragon wrote:
The destruction of the buddha statues in afghanistan waz a fairly huge cultural loss for the world. They were massive works of art that are now gone. I know there are groups of muslims who dont seem to care about historic things beyond the written word (see the Saudi work on mecca for an example) but for the rest of the world...

I dunno. It seems like a huge loss for things that arent actually being worshipped as idols.

Thats an extremely fair argument to make, so it has no chance.

**CthuluIsSpy**

KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Jihadis vs. Archeologists and the Egytpian Bureau of Antiquities.

Yeah my money's on the latter, those guys are nuts.

Yeah, don't feth with Indiana Jones.
He will melt your face off with a Deus Ex Machina (pun totally intended).

**RossDas**

Didn't they try to blast the sphinx to bits decades ago but gave up trying?

**Jihadin**

Think it was a bet going betwen gun crews on which gunner can shoot the nose off

**hotsauceman1**

What if this is really the plot to the next Indiana Jones movie?

**juraigamer**

Oh damn, I see now, the idol is really a huge robot of destruction and the pyramids are being converted to make more, we must stop the mecha-sphinx!

**azazel the cat**

Oh, look. Egypt also has a National Church of Attention Whores, just like the Westboro people.

This will only end with their leader in prison.

RossDas wrote:Didn't they try to blast the sphinx to bits decades ago but gave up trying?

Jihadin wrote:Think it was a bet going betwen gun crews on which gunner can shoot the nose off

Yes, and I think that was the Mamluks that did it.

**CthuluIsSpy**

I for one welcome our necron overlords.

**Grey Templar**

I wasn't aware people still worshipped the old Egyptian dieties. And the Sphinx is mearely a guardian IIRC. And the Pyramids are just relics of an ancient dong fest that rulers at the time were prone to have with their deceased ancestors.

**nomsheep**

yes, but that is one sexy nose-less cat statue.

**CthuluIsSpy**

Grey Templar wrote:
I wasn't aware people still worshipped the old Egyptian dieties. And the Sphinx is mearely a guardian IIRC. And the Pyramids are just relics of an ancient dong fest that rulers at the time were prone to have with their deceased ancestors.

My cat thinks I follow the Ancient Egyptian religion. Does that count?

**Grey Templar**

No, untill you have a stone idol in your cats image it don't count.

**KalashnikovMarine**

Grey Templar wrote:
I wasn't aware people still worshipped the old Egyptian dieties. And the Sphinx is mearely a guardian IIRC. And the Pyramids are just relics of an ancient dong fest that rulers at the time were prone to have with their deceased ancestors.

There are active worship communities of pretty much ALL the old faiths. Just a little harder to find after the Christians tried to light everyone on fire.

**Grey Templar**

AFAIK, Christianity wasn't ever a dominate religion in Egypt. Certaintly not at a point where it was in power.

**Palindrome**

The big differnce between the Afghan Buddah statues and the Egyption monuments is that Afghanistan is effectively a medieval theocracy with a weak, or even no, central government. Egypt is a relatively developed democracy with a new but authorative government.

Nothing is going to happen to the Pyramids as it will cripple the Egyptian economy and politicans hate to be poor.