Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a Passover gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
Fast Forward

Egypt Islamists Plan New Protest Over Film

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, whose political party propelled the nation’s president to power, called for a nationwide peaceful demonstration on Friday to condemn insults to Prophet Mohammad, a senior official said on Wednesday on the group’s website.

The statement followed a protest in Cairo on Tuesday in which some demonstrators scaled the U.S. embassy walls and tore down the American flag over a film they blamed on the United States. The Egyptian government called the assault unjustified and said the U.S. government could not be held responsible.

In Libya, Islamist gunmen killed the U.S. ambassador in an attack on the Benghazi consulate prompted by the film.

Brotherhood secretary-general Mahmoud Hussein called for a “peaceful protest to condemn insults to religious convictions and insults to the Prophet”, adding it would start after noon prayers on Friday in front of main mosques across Egypt.

The group called for all Egyptian groups to join in. President Mohammad Mursi rose to power through the Brotherhood, although he formally resigned from the group on taking office.

The Salafi Call, an influential group of ultra-orthodox Salafi Muslim sheikhs, called for “suspending any cooperation between the two countries until (the U.S. government) takes practical measures to stop this farce,” it said in a statement.

It did not say whether it supported the protest.

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.