The National Council for Women's chief said Thursday she planned to sue Jama’a al-Islamiya for defaming her character.
Ambassador Mervat al-Talawy said she is taking the group’s political arm, the Construction and Development Party, to court for describing her as "an enemy to Islam" on its Facebook page.
Talawy added that party members accused her of leading a campaign against Al-Azhar scholars.
In response, Jama’a al-Islamiya said the statement an administrator’s mistake.
Talawy also said the Islamist organization is guilty of smear campaigns against public figures and others who oppose or disagree with the group.
Women's organizations have also denounced the party’s Facebook comments.
Foada Watch Initiative warned Islamists of the "consequences of false accusations of atheism and slander."
The organization said the Political Parties' Affairs Committee should take legal action against the party in a statement.
Alaa Aboul Nasr, the Construction and Development Party’s secretary general, denied the group had made the comments, saying the "post" was a message being circulated by other groups that a page administrator mistakenly shared.
Aboul Nasr said that the post was not an official statement by the party.
Although the party objects to the recent UN declaration condemning violence against women, it does not believe women who support the report are atheists, Aboul Nasr added.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Hanafy, head of Wafd Party parliamentary bloc, filed a complaint with the Public Prosection against Salafi preacher Shiekh Ahmed Abdallah, known as Abu Islam.
According to Hanafy, the preacher said Asmaa Fahmy, the wife of late Wafd leader Mostafa al-Nahas, owned the country’s first brothel.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
