*Clip # 1276 - Egyptian Cleric Safwat Higazi Explains His Fatwa Sanctioning
the Killing of Israelis Visiting Egypt

The following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian cleric Safwat
Higazi, which aired on Dream2 TV on August 26, 2006.

Mona Shazli, Presenter: Sheikh Safwat Higazi is one of the most well-known
people to appear on TV who talks about religious matters and fatwas. He is
one of the most well-known preachers, and he has a show on Al-Nas TV.

[...]

He said, among other things, that if he saw an Israeli on the street, in
Egypt, he would kill him. This may give the impression of being a fatwa to
kill any Israeli Jew walking down the street.

[...]

Safwat Higazi: I did not call upon people to kill Israelis in the streets. I
never said such a thing.

[...]

When I said what I said, I was dreaming a beautiful dream, which I hope will
come true, and that we all agree upon it. I dreamt that we are the Arab
Islamic States, not just Egypt, Lebanon, and Palestine. I was truly dreaming
that we are the Arab Islamic States. Get a map of the Arab homeland, and
erase the borders... Or maybe these can be borders between counties or
states, like the USA, in which 49 [sic] states were united into one country.
I had a dream that we were one country, called the Arab Islamic States. The
capital of this country is Egypt, and the president of Egypt and its
government head this country. This is the dream I dreamed.

[...]

I said that these Israelis... I specified the Israeli Jew, not just any Jew.
I said, word for word, that these are American Jews, Dutch Jews, and Jews
from all other nationalities - and to them this does not apply. He must be a
Jew and an Israeli, and not just any Israeli, because there are Israeli
Arabs, there are Muslim Israelis from the 1948 Arabs, there are Christian
Israelis... He must be an Israeli Jew, and, in parentheses - a Zionist. This
was the first condition of my fatwa. The second condition is that he must be
a combatant - in other words, a reserves soldier in the Israeli Defense
Force.

[...]

The third condition was that this action must cause no damage. I even said
that it was entirely forbidden for someone to wear an explosive belt and
blow himself up, and destroy a car in the street, just in order to kill an
Israeli.

[...]
The fourth condition I mentioned was that no innocent person be killed. If
we apply these four conditions of the fatwa in order to kill an Israeli, one
must make sure that he is a Jew, an Israeli, and that he is between 21 and
54, the age of the reserves, and if she is a woman, she must be between 21
and 34, which is the age of the reserves [for women], and even then, he must
make sure that she has no children, because a woman of this age with
children is no longer a soldier in the IDF.

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