Egyptian parliamentarian Reyad Abdel Sattar revealed that the major reason behind his demand to regulate the use of Facebook is the current terrorist threats facing the country in the light of the attempts aiming to manipulate the security of the country and to raise sectarian tensions among Muslims and Christians in the country.
He added that Facebook and other social media networks perform a major role to polarize the extremist elements, as the terrorist groups work to use its pages to promote their ideas. He blamed Muslim Brotherhood for using social media to incite their followers against the Egyptian government and its institutions and to carry out their criminal operations.
He added, in an interview with “Arabs Today”, that he managed to collect signatures from hundreds of parliamentarians from different parties and directions, as they agreed over the threat posed by Facebook in the light of its use as a tool to promote extremist ideas.
On the other hand, He praised the visit conducted by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to Saudi Arabia and his meeting with Saudi King Salman Bin Abdel Aziz, saying that the visit comes in a critical period of time in which the Arab nation faces serious challenges, including terrorism. He added that the visit came also to refute the claims over the deterioration of relations between the two countries.
He stressed the need for working to combating the ideas promoted by the extremists, saying that combating terrorism is not limited to the security confrontation. He called for renewing the religious discourse as soon as possible to close the door for the language of hatred and extremism. He expressed appreciation to the role performed by Egypt’s Azhar to confront these ideas, refusing the accusations against the Islamic institution.
He revealed also the increasing efforts exerted to restore the rates of tourists visiting the country during the current period, saying that it is considered one of the strategic issues on which the parliament focused since the beginning of its work. He praised the efforts exerted by Minister of Tourism Yahia Rashed to restore tourism during the coming period, while he blamed the current challenges for their failure to achieve notable progress in this regard.
He proposed the establishment of an international media channel to promote Egypt’s tourism in all over the world, saying that such a channel could perform a major role to undermine the medial campaigns aiming to harm the Egyptian economy.