JAFFA, Israel – One of the slain perpetrators of Friday’s deadly shooting attack in the Egyptian resort town of Hurghada made fierce anti-Christian remarks on Facebook shortly before the attack, the Egyptian media reported on Sunday.
21-year-old student Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Mahfouz, also known as Sheka, criticized Egyptians who bless Christians on Christmas – which the Copts, Egypt’s largest Christian denomination, celebrate this week. The Coptic Christmas started Janurary 6.
“It is forbidden to bless those who celebrate Christmas,” Mahfouz was quoted as saying. “The sky, the earth, and the mountains are shaking when these people [Christians] say that Allah had a son [Jesus]. How dare you bless them?”
“God said that man cursed and lied when these people said he had a child. How come God has a child?” he wrote, and quoted a Quran verse which is seen as Islam’s answer to the Holy Trinity: “God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son.”
“Muslims, don’t condone their celebrations, don’t take part in their lying,” he concluded.
The Quran leaves no daylight, Sheka added. “Those who are unfaithful to Allah and say that he has children should be treated as enemies. There are some among us who don’t diverge from this path, those who bless them for their holiday, which attributes a divine status to man.”
Mahfouz’s statements were criticized by some Egyptians on social media, who claimed he was sowing divisions within the Egyptian populace.
One Twitter user described seeing radicals trash a Christmas tree, stripping it of decoration and stoning it.
“The President clearly knew what he was talking about when he visited a church on Christmas and said that we should teach the younger generation what love and fraternity are. It’s a matter of national importance, if we want to protect our country,” he wrote.
Mahfouz was killed in the attack, as the Independent reported:
‘Two assailants have stormed the entrance to a hotel in the Egyptian city of Hurghada, before attacking and injuring three tourists with knives, security sources have said.
‘The two attackers wounded two Austrian tourists and a Swedish tourist at the four-star beachside Bella Vista Hotel in the Red Sea resort city, according to Egypt’s Interior Ministry.
‘Officials say police opened fire at the attackers, killing at least one.
‘Egypt’s Interior Ministry identified the slain attacker as 21-year-old Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Mahfouz, a student from Cairo’s neighborhood of Giza. It said both attackers carried knives and pellet guns.
‘All three wounded tourists have been taken to hospital, where one was treated and discharged, a ministry statement said.’