An Open Letter to Egyptian President, H.E. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Paris

Mr. President,

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre was delighted to follow the 30^th International Conference,organized by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs at the Egyptian Ministry of Islamic Endowments (Awqaf).

Delegates from 57 Muslim countries participated, in addition to twenty from Africa.

This two-day (September 15-16) gathering was a wonderful opportunity to announce a common stand against the threat of Iranian-sponsored terrorism andmayhem across the region and threatening most of the invitee states.

Unfortunately, the Egyptian Minister of Awqaf, Dr. Mohammed Mokhtar Gomaa, misused the occasion to claim, on Al-Ghad television, that the antisemiticand anti-Egyptian “Muslim Brotherhood grew in parallel with the Zionist entity as two enemy aggressors against us, one stabbing us in the face, the other stabbing us in the back!”

Arabic text:

وأضاف جمعة، في تصريحات لقناة الغد الإخبارية، أن جماعة الإخوان المسلمين نشأتبالتوازى تقريباً مع الكيان الصهيوني، لكى يكون لنا عدوان، أحدهما يطعن في الوجه والآخر يطعن فى الظه

Full interview Alghad TV Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9dZQYB-g3g&t (from 16:21 - 16:40)

In the past, Gomaa has also compared Israel with ISIS (Daesh).

Mr. President, on the same day that Gomaa was spewing his hate for Israel, you received a delegation in Cairo from the Canadian Centre for Israel andJewish Affairs. The visitors, according to Al Ahram, “hailed [your] efforts to boost the values of tolerance and peace for a historic coexistence among all religions.”

In that spirit, Mr. President, the Wiesenthal Centre’s global membership of over 400,000 individuals calls on you to publicly denounce Minister Gomaafor undermining your policy and maligning your neighbor, the State of Israel, in the presence of 77 Muslim States... a lost opportunity to encourage peace in the region.

Most respectfully,

Dr. Shimon Samuels

Director for International Relations

Simon Wiesenthal Centre

For more information, please contact the Center's Communications Department, 310-553-9036. join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, orfollow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the UnitedStates. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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