Al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyya in al-Minya said that they intervened in the operation of reconciliation between Muslims and Christians in Banī Ahmad and managed to prevent the fitnah with the cooperation of the people from the village and the other close villages. They affirmed that in this case there is no role played by executive leaders. Al-Jamāʿah said that they were surprised by the official statement, made by Major General Usāma Dayf, the governor, claiming to them all the credit in the reconciliation between Muslims and Copts in Bani Ahmad. They stated that they demand an official apology for this obvious lie.
Ahmad Yūsuf Abū al-Khayr, member of al-Jamāʿah in the previous parliament, said that what happened in Bani Ahmad is due to the increasing tension caused by the present conditions after the “military coup”. He added that some people are looking for sectarian war in order to make the “real revolution” (witnessed by the Egyptian streets) fail. Ihāb Ramzī appreciated al-Jamāʿah’s initiative but there is no doubt that the solution is the application of a “state of law” without exceptions. He added that the religious intolerance is always the outcome of differences between the two groups that should raise mutual awareness, demanding strict measures in order to prevent the fitnah (Khadīja al-ʿĀdlī, Islām Fahmī, al-Watan, Aug. 12)
(Federica Raimondi, Intern)
