Egyptian Islamists denounce Shiia mosque

Etelaf al-Qowa al-Islamiya, a coalition of 20 Islamist movements including the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists have condemned the opening of the first Husseiniya in Egypt. A Husseiniya is a place where Muslim Shiias gather to remember the killing of Hussein, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad. The coalition demanded in a statement obtained by Arabstoday that the ruling junta take decisive procedures to "prevent the existence of this community and the dissemination of its ideologies".  It also called the religious official bodies like al-Azhar, the Ministry of Awqaf (Endowment) and others to face, both scientifically and practically, the "attempts to spread Shiiasm in Egypt".  The statement also addressed Shiites saying: “Shiites everywhere should know that Egypt is and will remain by God’s leave the heaviest Sunni state in the Arab and Islamic region, and that the Egyptians' preoccupation with internal political affairs can never distract them from guarding the Sunnah and assuming their duty of defending against heresies.”