Egypt: Taqiyya in Action

by Raymond Ibrahim  •  May 18, 2012
Cross-posted from Jihad Watch

Here is an interesting anecdote of taqiyya—the Islamic doctrine that permits lies and hypocrisy whenever Muslims fear their stronger adversaries, including fellow Muslims: Soon after the clash between Egypt’s military and Islamists at al-Abbassia, Sheikh Hassan Abu al-Ashbal, one of the leaders of the Salafi party, declared a full-blown jihad against the military—only to retract it, once the Egyptian media exposed it. Backing down, al-Ashbal said that he was “angry at the spilling of innocent blood by the military,” and so he “spoke words he did not mean,” including his “declaration of war and the raising of the banner of jihad in Egypt.”

Instead, the sheikh redirected his rage at those who exposed him—the “rabid media,” which he proceeded to blame for the chaos in Egypt. This, of course, is reminiscent of the recent threats Egypt’s On TV received from the “Jihad Group to Cleanse the Country,” which blamed the media station of “seeking to destroy the nation and create chaos to implement the American and Zionist agenda.” Apparently, some Egyptian media are not as sympathetic or apathetic to the Islamist agenda as are their counterparts in the West, no doubt because the threat is much closer to home.