Egypt and Iran in Spat over Commemorative Stamp
The Media Line / Rachelle Kliger
20-Aug-2009

Egypt is banning an Iranian stamp honoring an Egyptian women who was stabbed, claiming Iran is exploiting the case for political gain

Egypt is angry about a stamp issued in Tehran which commemorates an Egyptian woman who was stabbed to death in Europe.

The stamp honors Marwa El-Sherbini, a pregnant Egyptian student who was stabbed to death in a German courtroom in July.

But Egypt says Iran is exploiting the case in order to knock its enemies and make political gains.

The spat is part of a larger diplomatic dispute between Iran and Egypt, which has been ongoing for three decades.

“We in Egypt think the Iranians is are exploiting incidents like this to promote themselves as leaders and speakers of the Islamic world and of course we don’t like this,” Osama Harb, president of the Egyptian opposition Democratic Front Party told The Media Line. “We don’t consider Iran as a nation that speaks for the Islamic world.”

Harb said that El-Sherbini’s murder is being exploited in order to exaggerate what he called a fanatic trend in the Western world against Muslims. But he said many Egyptians, and especially moderates, do not share this view and instead believe that the murder was an exception that does not represent an Islamophobic trend.

The official Egyptian media reported this week that Egyptian authorities were banning the Iranian stamp bearing El-Sherbini’s name, but there was no official confirmatio... >>>

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