loading…
A photo of Mohammed Salah with the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the background is circulating on social media. Photo/twitter/Salam Hindawi
DOHA – The media and clerics praised Mohammed Salah, the Egyptian border guard who crossed into Israeli territory on June 3, 2023 and then killed three Israeli soldiers.
The Al-Jazeera presenter, and member of the Doha-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), which is based in Qatar and supported by the Qatari authorities, took to Twitter to describe Salah as a “hero”, “the pride of the Arab people” and “a martyr who fulfilled his duty to his religion.” his homeland… and the honor of his Arab and Islamic peoples.”
Many of their tweets came with hashtags praising Salah and his actions. Hashtags launched on social media included “Soldier of Egypt”, “heroic martyr Mohammed Salah” and “pride of Arabs”.
An Al-Jazeera presenter and several clerics drew a link between the attack and the anniversary of the start of the 1967 war, known in the Arab world as Naksa Day, which occurred on June 5, two days after the attack.
They write that Salah’s shooting sweetened the bitter taste of the Arab defeat in 1967, even after so many years.
Some writers liken Mohammed Salah to Suleiman Khater, the Egyptian soldier who opened fire on a group of Israeli tourists in the Sinai in October 1985, killing seven people, including four children. Various articles and cartoons in the Qatari press also praised Salah.
An editorial in the London-based Qatari daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi on 5 June 2023 presented the Egyptian and Israeli versions of events, and concluded, “The operation (i.e., attack) showed the border guards… planned every detail of the attack and were well acquainted with the terrain, including observation post area where he killed two (Israeli) soldiers.”
“The operation proved that, despite the many years that have passed since 1979, the year the peace agreement between Israel and Cairo was signed, and despite the overall destruction of the Arab people, civil wars and oppression of tyrannical regimes (Arabs), events in Palestine, what Israel and his racist government is doing to the Palestinian people, it continues to be active,” said the report.
The report added, “An influential factor that can stir up Arab national sentiment is (In fact, very influential) that a person like the Egyptian assailant decided to sacrifice his life as an act of protest against Israel’s crimes and against ‘security cooperation’, false peace and normalization agreements.”
