Ahmadinejad's historic Egypt visit prompts Salafist concerns.

Ahmadinejad's historic Egypt visit prompts Salafist concerns.(AO).Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was greeted at Cairo airport on Tuesday by counterpart Mohamed Morsi, in the start of an historic visit by the leader of Shia Iran to Sunni Egypt.
Ahmadinejad, who is on a three-day visit to attend the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Cairo, is the first Iranian leader to visit Egypt since diplomatic relations were broken off in 1980, a year after Iran's Islamic revolution and Egypt's peace agreement with Israel.
According to state-owned news agency MENA, the two leaders discussed regional issues and ways to enhance Egypt-Iran relations in a short meeting at the airport.
They further discussed means to resolve the Syrian crisis without relying on military interference. Iran is a close ally of the Syrian regime, while Egypt under Morsi's rule backs the Syrian opposition.
The two presidents met previously in Tehran last August, during the Non-Aligned Movement summit.
President Mohamed Morsi had earlier stated during his 2012 presidential campaign, that he would "never meet with Ahmadinejad until he changes his stance towards the Syrian regime." Members of Egyptian group the Salafist Call criticised the historic visit, stressing their opposition to any "Shia influence on Sunni Egypt."
In a statement, the group also voiced its opposition to the planned visit by the Iranian president to Tahrir Square, describing it as "having the possibility of sending out negative messages given the current critical situation in the country."
"He [Ahmadinejad] must not forget that one of Egypt's global commitments and [part of] President Morsi's presidential programme is to protect all Sunni nations from political, cultural or military penetration."
The influential Salafist group also stated that Ahmadinejad needed to be "confronted with his responsibility regarding the killing of women and children in Syria through, his backing of the regime of Bashar Al-Assad."
The statement also raised relations with the largely Sunni Gulf. Ahmadinejad must realise that "the security of the Gulf is one of the main pillars of Egyptian national security," read the statement.
The Salafist statement went on to demand that the Iranian leader not to be allowed to visit any places or mosques that are claimed by Shia to be affiliated with their doctrine.
Last November, during the Shia holiday of Ashura, when Shia Muslims commemorate the killing of Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Mohamed, Egyptian police barred a number of Shia from entering Al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo to celebrate the religious holiday.
The decision to ban the Shia reportedly came after a number of Salafist youth and some Sunni movements filed a complaint requesting that Shia be blocked from entering the mosque.
Hmmmm....Morsi next will meet Obama in the White House.A frightening thought came to my mind, what if Morsi is the 'Middle Man' for talks between Obama and Ahmadinejad?Read the full story here.

Qaradawi Gives Speech At Al-Azhar; Calls For Arabs And Muslims To Unite In Confrontation With Israel.

Qaradawi Gives Speech At Al-Azhar; Calls For Arabs And Muslims To Unite In Confrontation With Israel.(TGMR).Various media are reporting on a speech given by Youssef Qaradawi before Friday prayers at the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, his first speech ever at Al-Azhar. According to a Middle East Monitor report:
Al-Qaradawi said that it was up to the Arabs and Muslims to, ‘prove to the entire world that they are a single nation capable of confronting any aggressor against its peoples.’ The prominent scholar and president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Dr Yousef al-Qaradawi, has called on Muslim and Arab nations to organize their ranks and unify their response to confront their common enemy. From al-Azhar’s pulpit during today’s Friday sermon, al-Qaradawi said that it was up to the Arabs and Muslims to, ‘prove to the entire world that they are a single nation capable of confronting any aggressor against its peoples.’ He reiterated the Muslim scholars’ condemnation of the Israeli aggression, which he described as arrogant and oppressive.
According to a translation of Arabic language reports on the speech:

On Friday, Qaradawi gave a ‘historical’ sermon, for the first time in Al-Azhar saying that Al-Azhar “is now again the pulpit of the sunni-Muslim world and pulpit of the Quran”.[1] According to the report on Qaradawi’s personal website, many senior Egyptian officials and Al-Azhar scholars were present. In his semon, Qaradawi referred to “The tyrannical Israel which arrogantly [dwells in the] land, which invaded Gaza and killed innocents, and which there is no other option but to confront”.[1] Qaradawi further praised the Egyptian stance and its decision to call back its ambassador. According to other reports, following prayers, thousands went on to demonstrate, chanting slogans like “Millions of martyrs are on their way to Al-Quds”, Khaybar Khaybar Oh Jews, the army of Muahhamad will soon return” and “The people want to overthrow Tel-Aviv”. Other slogans were “Islam is coming”, “Gaza will not break” and “Gaza the symbol of pride”.[2]
Earlier reports suggested that Qaradawi was expected to actually lead the Friday prayers but according a Daily News Egypt report , he gave the speech before the prayers which were led by the Minister of Religious Endowments, Tala’at Afifi who recently appointed Salah Soltan, a notorious anti-Semite and formerly part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, to an important position within the Ministry. As discussed in an earlier post on the Qaradawi appearance at Al-Azhar, it had been reported by one source that that Egyptian President Morsi as well as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would also be officiating but no confirmation could be found even though both were reported in Egypt at the time.Read the full story here.
[1] source: http://www.qaradawi.net/component/content/article/6323.html
[2] http://www.almasryalyoum.com/node/1244876