Political powerhouse Mohamed ElBaradei denounced a fatwa Wednesday that authorized the murder of National Salvation Front members.
The NSF leader and Dostour Party head said the fatwa issued by Mahmoud Shaaban, a professor of religious rhetoric at Al-Azhar University, was an attempt to incite violence.
“When such people incite killing in the name of religion without being arrested, we can kiss the regime goodbye,” tweeted ElBaradei. “How many crimes were committed against and in the name of Islam.”
Shaaban based his fatwa on a Hadith that says: He who swore allegiance to an imam and gave him his hand and the fruit of his heart shall obey him, and he who disputes him shall have his neck smitten.
Several Islamist figures have attacked NSF leaders recently for refusing to support President Mohamed Morsy, claiming the NSF was behind violent clashes that swept across Egypt following the revolution's second anniversary last month.
Mohsen Rady, the Freedom and Justice Party's Secretary in Qalyubiya, told Al-Masry Al-Youm Monday that the NSF wanted to bring Egypt to its knees through violent protest.
Other religious groups have also called for the murder of protesters. Last week, Islamis groups Jihad Organization and Jama'a al-Islamiya said members of the elusive Black Bloc, a group of masked protesters that have not made their agenda clear, should also be killed.
“God orders us to kill, crucify or cut off the hands and feet of those who spread mischief on earth,” said Jama'a al-Islamiya's Mufti Abdel Akhar Hammad, citing a verse from the Quran. “The president must give that order.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
