Dr. Waheed Abul Majeed, political analyst at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, described Dec.22 assault on Egypt’s foreign minister [while entering the Al Aqsa mosque] as “a regretful incident carried out by a group of mentally retarded people.”
The Egyptian political expert explained to Al Bawaba that “the incident has had very limited political impact as the ones [referring to the Islamic Liberation Party] who were behind the assault have no influence on both the political and cultural scenes in the Arab world.”
Dr. Abul Majeed described the Liberation party as “a group of people known to wreak havoc when the opportunity presents itself.” He also added the incident does not have anything to do with Palestine or the Palestinian cause…the real reason behind the assault on the foreign minister was because the Egyptian government had arrested several of the party’s [Islamic Liberation Party] members as they were about to carry out acts of sabotage in Egypt throughout the past several months.”
In the same context, Dr. Abul Majeed does not expect a step-up in security for any future visit to the Palestinian Territories by Egyptian officials.
“Cairo has never witnessed such strong support by all the Palestinian factions as is evident today. All the Palestinian powers-that-be fully understand the importance of Egypt’s role in helping push forward the peace process…I strongly believe that a mentally retarded group of people cannot change the course of policy and history.”
