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CAIRO: An Egyptian man held in the Philippines for allegedly
plotting a Christmas bomb attack is an envoy of Sunni Islam’s
highest seat of learning who was arrested by mistake, the
institution’s grand imam said.
Al-Azhar’s Sheikh Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi told
Egypt’s official MENA news agency that he was personally following
up the case of Sheikh Mohammed al-Sayyid Ahmed Mussa who was
arrested by police in the Philippines on Tuesday.
Tantawi aide Sheikh Abdel Fattah Allam said he
expected Sheikh Mussa to be released on bail “in the next few
hours.”
“The envoys of Al-Azhar abroad are chosen
according to strict criteria to encourage moderation in Islam and
the renunciation of violence and terrorism,” he added.
The religious affairs ministry issued a
statement saying Sheikh Mussa was being well treated but that there
were contacts at the highest level between the two governments to
try to secure his release.
“Sheikh Mussa is a man of faith who represents
a prestigious religious institution,” the ministry said.
“There are 29 Al-Azhar envoys in the
Philippines teaching Arabic language and Islamic religion in
accordance with an agreement between Cairo and Manila,” it added.
Mussa, identified by Philippine police as
Mohamad Sayed, was arrested during a raid on a flat in the Majad
Islamic School in the southern city of Cotabato in Mindanao.
An explosive device fashioned from a
60-millimeter mortar round and ball bearings attached to a timing
device were recovered from his room.
Philippine police said the Egyptian was captured
after surveillance and that intelligence reports suggested he
planned to detonate the bomb at an undisclosed location in the city
on Christmas Day.
Among the items they said were recovered from
his room was a booklet on the organization of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF), a rebel group that has been fighting to set
up an Islamic state in southern Philippines.
On Monday, police officials insisted that they
did not make a mistake.
Tantawi said he hoped Mussa would be released
“within the coming couple of days” and that the arrest was
indeed a mistake.
-- AFP With The Manila Times
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