Press Release
(وَقِفُوهُمْ إِنَّهُمْ مَسْئُولُونَ)
"And stop them, for they shall be questioned" [as-Saffat: 24]
What will you answer on the Day of Judgment, Oh President on your greeting of Ahmadinejad the partner of Al-Sham's tyrant?!

On Tuesday, 05 February 2013, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Cairo in the first visit by an Iranian president to Egypt in 34 years, and held a session of talks with President Mohammad Mursi on the evening of their participation in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Summit. He also visited the Sheikhs of Al-Azhar and met the President of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayeb, where Al-Tayeb's position was lightly marked with sharpness regarding some Iranian policies in the region.

President Mursi's reception of Ahmadinejad is strange, reprehensible and unacceptable. Oh President Mursi, do you know who you warmly received? You have honored the friend of Bashar, butcher of Ash-Sham, who has orphaned its children and widowed its women, murderer of its elders and demolisher of its mosques. He is Bashar's partner in his crimes. Is this reception worthy of a man like him? Was this reception an Egyptian reward for the Iranian regime for its desperate support of the tyrant of the beloved Sham supplying him with all means of survival?

Yes, Islam has obligated brotherhood and love among Muslims, and working to strengthen the spirit of cooperation, communication, convergence and tolerance between different sects of Muslims around the globe, but not the likes of this president backing the tyrants of Ash-Sham and supporter of his people's killings. The Iranian regime has gone to great lengths in defending the tyranny of Bashar and his Shabiha. In fact, it inseparably intertwined its relationship with the criminal regime when the advisor on International Affairs to the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution Ali Akbar Welayati announced on January 26, 2013 that "an attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran", and by this it became clear that the news of the Iranian regime dispatching fighters and military experts to back Bashar in the killing of our people in Syria is a truth that cannot be denied.

Oh President Mursi, it should have been incumbent compulsory for you to close the Iranian embassy in your country instead of receiving the partner of Bashar in his crimes with all this hospitality. What you have committed is a great sin and a grave crime! How will you face the innocent children of Damascus, the pious elders of Dara'a, the loyal youth of Aleppo, and the chaste women of Idlib that have been displaced?

O Allah, the Most Generous of Givers, most giving of those asked, we ask you to destroy the tyrant of Ash-Sham Bashar and his aides, and those placing their firm grip with him and those who help him with money, weapons or men. O Allah, be with the Mujahideen, the pious and pure, in Ash-Sham, and inspire them onto the right path, and establish within us the Islamic State, and bestow upon us a strong ruler God fearing pure that protects this Ummah defending it that does not know flattery, sycophancy, adulation or Riyyaa. Indeed You are Able of answering the duaa.

(إِنَّمَا يَنْهَاكُمْ اللَّهُ عَنْ الَّذِينَ قَاتَلُوكُمْ فِى الدِّينِ وَأَخْرَجُوكُمْ مِنْ دِيَارِكُمْ وَظَاهَرُوا عَلَى إِخْرَاجِكُمْ أَنْ تَوَلَّوْهُمْ وَمَنْ يَتَوَلَّهُمْ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمْ الظَّالِمُونَ)

 "Allah only forbids you, with regard to those who fight you for (your) Faith, and drive you out of your homes, and support (others) in driving you out, from turning to them (for friendship and protection). It is such as turn to them (in these circumstances), that do wrong." [Al-Mutahadida: 8]

Othman Bakhash
Director of the Central Media Office
of Hizb ut Tahrir