The editor of one of Egypt's most read newspapers has published a shocking article in which he described the Muslim Brotherhood, Jewish people, and Shia Muslims as the "trinity of evil in the world".
The article, entitled "The Brotherhood, the Jews and the Shia.. trinity of evil in the world", was published in Egyptian newspaper Youm7 on Saturday.
"There is no catastrophe in the world right now that isn't related to one of these evils: the Jewish lobby, the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group, and the Shia with their extremist and armed wings," writes editor of Youm7 Dandrawy Elhawary.
Elhawary goes on to present what he considers similarities between the three groups.
"When Israel was founded by Theodor Herzl, it was founded on the basis of religious belief. The same religious belief was present during the Iranian Revolution in 1979. And similarly, the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood was set up with a religious approach," the editor writes.
"The Trinity agrees in that hostility to Jews is considered anti-Semitism, hostility to Shias is considered an attack on the family of the Prophet of Allah, and hostility to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood is considered Islamophobia, as if the Trinity were emissaries from heaven, sent to earth to speak in the name of the Lord."
According to Elhawary, the three are also similar in that they do not recognise the idea of a "homeland" with set geographical boundaries. The "trinity" also all excel in "racial discrimination", according to the editor.
"The Trinity sanctifies the clergy more than Prophets and Messengers, and their words are more sacred than the Holy Scriptures," Elhawary wrote in the article.
This is not the first time Youm7 has come under fire for controversial headlines. A front page headline in 2014 described "Black Terror Gangs in Cairo" with racist language, the Huffington Post reported.
Analysts responded to the article with disbelief on social media, saying that the newspaper is "state-controlled".
Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but since his overthrow in a 2013 military coup, the movement's members have been subjected to severe persecution, with thousands arrested and tortured.
President Abdel Fattah-al Sisi, who led the military ouster of Morsi, has waged a wide-scale crackdown jailing thousands of Islamists, secular activists, and even bloggers and comedians.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
