Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) said on Monday it will not allow extremist groups to control the country. The declaration comes days after a number of banned religious groups announced plans to establish their own political parties. In a meeting with the chief editors of state-run newspapers and the MENA news agency, the council reiterated that Egypt will not be governed by "a new Khomeini," referring to Iran's clerical system of ruling. "SCAF will impose measures to protect the country from the dominance of extremist groups," Assistant Defense Minister Mohamed Mukhtar told attendants. Egypt's Jama'a al-Islamiya and the Salafi community, groups that suffered persecution under the rule of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, have declared intentions to establish their own political parties in preparation for the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for September. Mukhtar noted that the Ministry of Interior is working on preventing adherents of extremist religious ideas from entering the country. Jama'a al-Islamiya and Islamic Jihad announced last week that 3000 of their followers abroad were preparing to come to Egypt. Mukhtar highlighted the importance of the role of al-Azhar, the highest religious institution in the Sunni Muslim world, in facing extremist ideas, adding that court rulings issued against people arriving to Egypt have to be applied. Mohamed al-Assar, another defense minister assistant, voiced concerns about recent attempted assaults, possibly by hardline Salafis, on shrines and religious attractions frequented by followers of the Sufi trend. Sufis had vowed to resist the assaults, but Salafis denied involvement. "We cannot exclude or uproot any segment of community, whether Wahabis, Salafis, Muslim Brotherhood, or Christians, for they all components of the Egyptian society," al-Assar said.
