Group retracts 'myth' comment
2005-12-23 21:39
Cairo - A spokesperson of Egypt's Islamist opposition Muslim Brotherhood retracted on Friday a remark made earlier by the group's top leader that the Holocaust was a "myth".
In his weekly article posted on Thursday on the group's
website, the group's leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef had described the holocaust as a "myth".
"American democracy is a democracy (that endorses) a single perspective and attacks anyone who disagrees with the vision of the sons of Zion concerning the myth of the Holocaust," Akef wrote in echoing similar controversial remarks recently made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
But Essam El-Eriane, a Brotherhood spokesperson, on Friday retracted the remark, adding that it was "only a minor part of Akef's article".
El-Eriane told Deutsche-Presse Agentur dpa that the use of the word myth was "inappropriate".
"The Holocaust happened to the Jews like it happened to other groups and we can't deny that," El-Eriane said.
Akef's article comes two weeks after the group has won 20% of the seats in the legislative elections, five-fold the number of seats they held in the previous parliament. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA