Egyptian secular party seeks to change national Islamic identity

The establishment of the Secular Egyptian Party has been announced, alamatonline.net reported on Sunday. According to founder Hisham Owf, the party seeks to “abolish the Islamic identity of Egypt.” The secularist claims that Islam causes sectarian clashes and opposes human rights.

Speaking to the pro-coup newspaper Al-Watan, Owf said, rather bizarrely, “I am calling on the state to allow the Hindus to practice their religious rituals anywhere in Egypt.” He noted that there are no Hindus in his party.

This is the latest call to abolish the Islamic identity of Egypt, among dozens of others made by people encouraged by the military coup to be hostile towards Islamic teachings and Islamists. It has all the appearances of a systematic defamation campaign against Islam and its followers.

Islamists in Egypt won an overwhelming majority in the first ever free elections held in Egypt in the wake of the 25 February Revolution. The army, backed by Israel, the US, the West and some Arab states, carried out a coup against the elected president and installed a general in his place.

Thousands of Islamists and their supporters have been killed since the 2013 coup and thousands more have been imprisoned, with a number of them tortured to death. Hundreds now face the death penalty for wanting democratic reform in Egypt.