Salafi preacher Mahmoud Shaaban has blamed Egyptian police after he was abducted close to Tahrir Square and held by protesters.
Shaaban claimed the Interior Ministry knew he had been abducted and yet did not turn up for four hours. The Salafi preacher described protesters in Tahrir as "ignorant."
Popular committees at the Abdel Moneim Riad entrance to Tahrir stopped Shaaban's car last week, seizing his cell phone and documents in his possession.
They then called Qasr al-Nil police station and held him until officers took him to the station.
“I saw an Egypt other than the one I know,” Shaaban told demonstrators at the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in supporting Mohamed Morsy in eastern Cairo.
“If those are Egyptians, then Egypt is dead,” he claimed. “I saw ignorant people with no minds, and I found a state of enmity and hatred towards the beard.”
Shaaban reassured his supporters, adding that his captors did not lay a finger on him. The preacher left Tahrir safely, he said.
The prominent Salafi preacher, who once called for National Salvation Front leaders to be killed, revealed he is staying at the pro-Morsy sit-in in al-Nahda Square. He visited Rabea al-Adaweya to "shake hands with these bright faces," he said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
