Rifai Taha, the former president of Gamaa Islamiyya’s Shura council in Egypt, said that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri should be praised and called on Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to allow Zawahiri’s return to Egypt.
Taha insisted on the application of Shariah [Islamic] law in Egypt and divided the liberals who refused Shariah into two groups. The first reject Sharia because they don’t know what it is, he said. For those, Taha said there is a duty to introduce them to Shariah. The second group know that Shariah law is right. He called the latter group “recalcitrants who have deviated from God’s religion,” but that dialogue should be held with them before such a judgment is passed. He said Al-Azhar scholars should be the ones responsible for implementing Shariah.