CAIRO: In arguably the oddest of news, the American ultra-conservative Frontpage Magazine has said that Egypt's new government under President Mohamed Morsi has plans to destroy the Great Pyramids of Giza. The publication, known for its virulent anti-Islamic sentiments and meandering between reality and truth and fiction pertaining to Islam globally and in the United States, argued that the country's Salafist al-Nour party has brought forth plans to demolish the country's iconic monuments to take down “symbols of paganism.” It cited Bahrain's “Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” and President of National Unity, Abdal Latif al-Mahmoud, who reportedly urged Egypt's new president to “destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what Amr bin al-As could not.” Mahmoud's quotes were referring to what Frontpage said were efforts by al-As, a companion to the Prophet Mohamed, who another right-wing publication The Christian Post reported invaded Egypt in 641 and “began destroying Egyptian artifacts.” That publication does admit to the historical accuracy of the accusations against al-As and the Prophet's companions in Egypt. But it goes on to allude to al-As being responsible for destroying the Great Library of Alexandria, even though historians attribute its destruction to a fire. The FrontPage Magazine article then details “examples” of contemporary Muslims across several African and Middle Eastern countries who have destroyed historical monuments. “Much of this hate for their own pre-Islamic heritage is tied to the fact that, traditionally, Muslims do not identify with this or that nation, culture, or language, but only with the Islamic nation – the Umma,” the article states. “Accordingly, while many Egyptians – Muslims and non-Muslims alike – see themselves first and foremost as Egyptians, Islamists have no national identity, identifying only with Islam's ‘culture,' based on the ‘sunna' of the prophet and Islam's language, Arabic,” it claims. The article is yet another example of fearmongering that highlights the growing divide among real scholarship regarding the Muslim Brotherhood, which is not a Salafist organization, and a few outliers who do not speak for the greater Islamic community, in Egypt and elsewhere.
