Egypt’s Salafist leader says he's learned from the Muslim Brotherhood's mistakes
In an interview with Al-Monitor, the Salafist Call’s deputy chief Yasser Borhami discusses his controversial fatwas and says his party is willing to reopen the human rights dossier in Egypt.
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — In a modest house, the ground floor of which has become a medical clinic serving the poor inhabitants of Alexandria’s Sidi Bishr neighborhood, Al-Monitor interviewed the deputy head of Egypt’s Salafist Call, Sheikh Yasser Borhami, who also is a physician and Salafist preacher.
Borhami’s fatwas have been received with much shock and controversy by Egyptian and Arab media outlets. On Aug. 7, he objected to the new Suez Canal investment certificates, which he declared were haram, and he issued a fatwa on Feb. 25, 2012, against standing for the national anthem or saluting the flag. He turned Egyptian public opinion against him with a purported fatwa on Dec. 14, 2013, allowing the destruction of churches.
In the interview, Borhami revealed details about those fatwas, and also spoke of the lessons the Salafist organization took from the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise and fall in Egypt.
The text of the interview follows:
