CAIRO - Salafist preacher Sheikh Mohamed Hassaan has announced an initiative called "Egyptian Aid", for Egyptians to prove that Egypt will never be subject to the US aid and will not allow anyone to undermine its sovereignty. He has urged the Prime Minister and the People's Assembly, PA, (Lower House of Parliament) to create a legal and practical mechanism for the implementation of this initiative. Hassaan, a very popular Islamic TV preacher, has called for all Al-Azhar scholars and preachers to adopt his initiative and to encourage Egyptians to take part in it, stressing that it will make more money than US aid. Egyptians called for cutting the aid as they belive that it is not useful. "People don't benefit from such aid," Mahmoud Zoheir, 38, an accountant, told Yon Sunday The Egyptian Gazette on the telephone, adding that Egyptians have ways to compensate for such aid. Mona Mohamed, a 25-year-old graduate, said it would be better for Egyptians if the US cut its aid. "The US always threatens to cut aid as if it gives us [the] food and services [we need]; on the contrary, the aid harms us." Ahmed Mohamed, a 26-year-old preacher, said Egyptians should call for cutting US aid. "It is God Who feeds and protects us... He gives us everything. So the Egyptians shouldn't worry if this aid stops," he told this paper. Hassaan warned during a TV programme late on Saturday of a plot to bring down the State, starting with weakening the police and then targeting the military and the judiciary. He defended the role of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in securing Egypt, adding that he trusts the SCAF to stick to its timetable for handing over power as planned. He hailed the PA, commenting that the MPs are practising politics for the first time and urging them to co-operate with Parliamentary Speaker Saad el-Katatni. However, he added that heÕd rather the PA sessions werenÕt televised, to allow MPs to concentrate. The preacher pointed out that Egypt is now in dire need of work, not civil disobedience. "Countries are not built by debates on satellites channels and spreading rumours," he said, urging such satellites not to focus on an incident all day long, since this makes the world think that Egypt is about to collapse. He also expressed his support for launching an initiative for the board of Al-Ahly club and Al-Masry fans and other Port Said citizens to meet each other, in order to defuse the crisis caused by the deaths of 74 soccer fans in Port Said Stadium. The preacher also called for compensation for the victims. After Egypt's recent crackdown on NGOs, US has threatened to cut off its aid to the country. Egyptian authorities have charged 43 people in the probe, including 19 they identify as US citizens. However, the US State Department has said that it believes only 16 of the defendants are American, fewer than half of whom are believed to be in Egypt, according to State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
