CAIRO: The spokesperson for the Salifist Call, Abdel-Men'em Shahat, has reaffirmed and defended a call for covering Egypt's treasured Pharaonic relics with wax, claiming that they resemble false idols. In comments to al-Rai al-Aam newspaper, he reaffirmed his call for the “covering the faces of the Egyptian Pharaonic statues with wax because they resembled the idols that were present in Mecca.” The Salafi group came under attack when they first expressed this intention, especially in light of the fact that Pharaonic relics attract scores of tourists to Egypt every year, accounting for 15 percent of the nations income. “This was erroneously interpreted in some media outlets that the Salafists want to infuse terror and fear in the hearts of the Egyptians in order to scare them off from the spreading of the Islamic call,” he asserted. “We do not want to scare the Egyptians. We want to implement Islamic Sharia as ordered by God Almighty,” he went on to explain. Rumors spread recently that that a group of Salafists had destroyed an archeological statue in Giza. However, Egypt's Antiquities Minister, Moustafa Amin, said that the rumors were false. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/dV5pt Tags: featured Section: Egypt, Latest News