Turkey Republic Day sparks issues in Egypt

Egyptian Salafist leader Yasser Burhami has declared his rejection of Muslims attending Republic Day celebrations held by the Turkish Embassy in Cairo. The Turkish national holiday celebrates the anniversary of the declaration of the Turkish Republic and the end of the Islamic Caliphate at the hands of Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. In a fatwa issued Sunday evening, Burhami criticised the attendance of the Chairman of Salafist party al-Nour, Emad Abdulghafour, at the event, saying: “We find his attendance dissatisfying. We do not approve of it and did not know about it beforehand,” adding “It is not permitted to a Muslim to take part in a celebration of the end of the Islamic Caliphate era, which is a symbol of Muslim unity the destruction of which was planned by the enemies of Islam.” Burhami, who is Vice President of Egypt Salafist Call Society, added: “This celebration is meant to honour the establishment of Ataturk’s secular republic, which fought against Islam and its people in a harsher manner than even the infidels.” He referred to the event as a “catastrophe of the greatest magnitude, the celebration of which cannot be justified with diplomatic traditions because they are not obligatory, for which we thank Allah, the most exalted. To Allah alone is our complaint.” Another Salafist leader has told Arabstoday that party grandees within al-Nour also expressed displeasure at the presence of Abdulghaffour at the event. The source suggested a crisis may be brewing between Abdulghafour and the top echelons in the party. The party chairman survived calls for a vote of no confidence in recent months. The Turkish Embassy in Cairo had hosted the celebration Wednesday to mark the passage of 89 years since Ataturk’s establishment of the Turkish Republic. The event was attended by a number of public and political figures.