It's the dawn of a new age in Egypt for Salafist presidential contender Hazem Salah Abu Ismail (pictured above). The confidence exuded by the popular 50-year old lawyer-turned-preacher says as much.
He has praised al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden as a "martyr," called on the United States to release convicted terrorist mastermind Omar Abdel Rahman (aka the "Blind Sheikh"), and has said the 9/11 terror attacks were "fabricated from the outset." Israel, he says, is a "false state" and Egypt should nullify the peace treaty with it. His political platform closely mirrors the strict Salafi reading of Islamic law, which denies the very existence of personal freedoms and attempts to set society back to the way it was during the time of the early Caliphs.
His views appear to be striking a chord in Egypt. He is soaring in polls six weeks before the election.
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