Muhammad al-Zawahiri, the younger brother of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, has said the news media were misleading the public in reporting that his Islamic Jihad organization is planning to establish an Islamic emirate in Sinai.
In statements to Al Arabiya, Zawahiri denied that his group was “Takfiri,” meaning that it accuses people with opinions different from its own of apostasy.
He also denied reports that his group was planning to carry out terrorist bombings in Cairo, describing those reports as part of a media campaign against his group.
He said media and security organs in Egypt should be cleansed of former regime figures. “The seditions that some parties are trying to ignite will destroy the nation as a whole and those parties need to put national interests at the top of their concerns.”
He said his group is trying to spread its understanding of Islam with lectures, conferences and books and not with weapons. Zawahiri also noted that his group has no plans to take part in forming a political party or taking part in the elections because it does not believe in “the concept of democracy.”
“We reject the current democracy that gives sovereignty to people, because sovereignty is to God only, and this is what we demand. But we recognize the democracy that seeks to establish justice, equality and human dignity because it is compatible with the teachings of the Islamic religion.”
“Our only demand is that sovereignty be to God and that everything that is against God's law is illegitimate.”
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