Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

His war of words with Islamists this time took place after an interview to a Canadian TV station two weeks before the first round of the People's Assembly elections, in which he accused Islamists of being extremists and obtaining finance from Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Sawirus also likened the conditions in Egypt after the January 25 revolution to those in Iran after the 1979 revolution. "In both countries, the Islamist current was away from the developments but eventually they managed to hijack the revolution for their own interests," said Sawirus.

He openly called on the Western powers to intervene in Egypt to support liberal and civilian parties and stop the "Islamists' creeping to power".

However, Sa'd al-Husaynī, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) executive bureau, called on the Egyptian Bloc, to which Sawirus' Free Egyptians Party belongs, to disavow whoever dares seek the Western armies' help against their own people.

Husaynī noted that Sawirus must explain what he said and then apologize anyway for the people of Egypt.

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