A group of Egyptian political activists have announced plans to set up a local
version “of the Nazi party,” an Egyptian newspaper reported on
Thursday.
Citing a leftist Egyptian news portal, the
Al-Masry Al-Youm daily
said that “the party’s founding deputy is a former military official,” and that
the party would be aimed at bringing “together prominent figures from the
Egyptian society.”
The report cited founding member Emad Abdel Sattar as
saying that the unestablished party “believes in vesting all powers in the
president after selecting him or her carefully,” and that “preparations are
under way to choose the most competent person to represent the
party.”
Almasry Alyoum added that an Egyptian Nazi party “operated
secretly under former President Hosni Mubarak, whose regime prevented party
leaders from carrying out their activities freely.”
The newspaper said it
could not verify the report, but said it found two Facebook pages that appeared
recently under the title of “the Egyptian Nazi Party,” which have so far
attracted 70 followers.
Members are “increasing at an unexpected rate,
and several people came to ask about the nature of the party and its plans,” the
report said.
The party has a one-year plan to develop Egypt – unlike the
“marginalized liberal parties, which are like dead bodies,” a source was quoted
as saying.
The idea to start it came after some fundamentalist-religious
waves emerged, which, according to the source, created a state of chaos, and led
to the burning of churches, the destruction of shrines and assaults on unarmed
civilians.
Responding to the report, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, of
Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, said Egypt was
going through a highly turbulent period, adding that all manner of bizarre
individuals were launching Facebook groups and attracting
members.
Historically, he said, the German Nazi party saw three attempts
to copy it in the Arab world in the 1930s in Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. The
Egyptian party of that time was led by former president Anwar Sadat, who went on
to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
“They were copying the
extreme nationalism of Germany, before the Second World War, and before the word
‘Nazi’ became a coarse word,” Kedar said.
Irrespective of the unconfirmed
report on “the Egyptian Nazi party,” Egyptian activists opposed to army rule in
Egypt are planning to hold demonstrations on Friday, Kedar noted.
“Egypt
is a country of 85 million people. Some activists want a second and a third
revolution. No one knows where things are heading yet,” he said.