On July 4, 2013, Adly Mansour was sworn in as Egypt’s interim president. Since then, the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremely influential Islamic movement, has reported that a senior Arab member of the media has made claims that Mansour is of Jewish decent. According to The Alegemeiner, the person who made the claim is an Al-Jazeera reporter named Ahmed Mansour (who, despite sharing a last name, is not related to the interim president).
In a recent article, YNet author Roi Kais says their reasoning was that “…Adly Mansour is considered to be a Seventh Day Adventist and is therefore of Jewish descent.” The article also claimed that evidence of Mansour’s Jewishness was rooted, as reiterated in a Jerusalem Post article, that “[t]he article on IkhwanOnline, according to the Post, posited that Mansour’s appointment was backed by Israel and the US as part of a plan to eventually install leading opposition figure and former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBardei as president.” As it turns out, ElBardei has turned down an invitation to join the Shura Council, so long as it denies the Holocaust.
While the Muslim Brotherhood has since taken this article down, it is still of note.
To most, the Jewish allegation may seem like a harmless claim, but it is fueled with historical tensions. Just as religion plays a major role in United States politics, it has a significant influence on Mansour’s ability to keep his people under control, no matter how false the accusations.
Contributed by CAMERA Intern Rachel Wolf