Egyptian Salafists honor bin Laden with death prayer
Email 
Print
(An Egyptian Islamist cries as people hold a funeral prayer over the death of Osama Bin Laden, in a mosque in Cairo May 6, 2011/Asmaa Waguih)
Hundreds of Islamist Salafists defied security forces and held special prayers Friday for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan this week. Some Islamists regard Saudi-born bin Laden, who was inspired by Egyptian militants, as a martyr.
“We will pray, we will pray,” some 200 men chanted as police tried to stop the special prayers at the Salafist-run al-Nour Mosque in the Abbasiyah quarter of Cairo after regular Friday noon prayers. Salafists call for a fundamentalist version of Islam based on that practiced by its earliest followers.
Police stood by as the worshippers held the funeral “prayer for the absent,” which is performed for people whose bodies are not present at the mosque.
Analysts said the small number of attendees reflected how little support Islamist militants enjoy among Egyptians. Some of the worshippers marched toward the heavily guarded U.S. embassy in central Cairo, marched around Tahrir (Liberation) Square, scene of mass demonstrations that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February, and then dispersed.
.
ubscribe to all posts via RSSPost Your Comment
