You Can 'Kill Some Christians Today,' Says Egypt's Secretary-General of Islamic Jihad Party
Mohamed Abu Samra, secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad Party, made the claim that "it is permissible to kill some Christians today," then gave his argument defending such a position.
He justified this announcement by saying: "Those who came out with weapons, their blood is allowed for us [to spill], as a fighter is not considered dhimmi."
Dhimma is the Islamic law that specifies non-Muslims are to be protected residents within the Islamic state in exchange for taxes.
"In the recent funeral, the Christians brought the Qur'an and urinated on it. The Sheikh of Al-Azhar did not deny it. They also came out in demonstrations to destroy Muslim places, chanting 'We'll bring Islam down by any means possible,'" Samra said during an interview with Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan on Wednesday.
"Jihad gagged the new pope, as we told him in a statement 'your seclusion will not terrorize us.' If you want civil war, we will welcome it as you were the ones who started it," Samra said.
"I believe that Pope Tawadros is more dangerous than Shenouda, because the former considers using force as he is trying to establish a Coptic state. He considers the arrival of the Islamists an opportunity to declare civil war," Samra continued. "I believe that offering concessions to this person will make him continue on the path, which he charted, but the end will not be as he expects. Egypt is not like Lebanon or Southeast Asia, and national unity is a fact [here]."
"What Tawadros is doing is a far cry from what the Coptic people want," he added.
Samra stated to the newspaper that the Church stands behind the organization "Black Bloc," and that the "Tayyiban Battalion," which he claimed was formed under the late Pope Shenouda III under the cover of scouting, was trained in Lebanon and participated in the Lebanese civil war.
H.H Pope Tawadros II has not responded to such accusations. As for the claims of the Church supporting Black Bloc or its origins, there is no evidence for such and the scouting groups of the Church are responsible for church organization during prayers and did not receive any training in Lebanon.