Militants 'should be wiped out'

2006-05-08 19:17

Cairo - Egypt's top authority on Islamic law has said extremists who kill Muslims should be wiped out.

Ali Gomaa, the chief mufti of Egypt, said: "They must be liquidated physically and struck with all force ... We must not sympathise with people who have polluted their hands with the blood of Muslims.

"Contact or dialogue with them is impossible because they do not want to sit and listen to anyone." Gomaa was the chief government-appointed interpreter of Islamic law.

He was appearing at a seminar entitled "Islam - Moderation and Extremism", about two weeks after a group of bombers attacked a tourist resort on the Red Sea coast.

Other participants opposed the mufti

At least 18 people were killed in the small town of Dahab on April 24. Other participants in the seminar opposed the mufti.

Lawyer Muntasser el-Zayat, who had defended many militant Islamists, said it was a mistake to rule out dialogue.

He said: "If we accept the principle of dialogue with the other non-Muslims, the more so should we have dialogue with our own people. There should be a new code, which contradicts the code of violence which they have set out."

In response to a speaker who opposed leaving the security forces to handle militants alone, Gomaa said: "The security forces you don't like and which you speak against are playing a role in defending you ... We have to get away from the state of effeminacy in dealing with these people."

- Reuters