Egypt’s parliamentary speaker has sparked outrage online after praising Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ali Abdel Aal made the comments while defending Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi development plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Hitler had his mistakes, but what allowed him to expand eastward and westward was that he created a strong infrastructure,” the speaker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Abdel Aal has since said his words were taken “out of context”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hundreds of people have been detained in recent weeks for protesting against alleged government and military corruption in Egypt linked to building projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The country has pursued a policy of economic austerity in recent years and more than 30% of the population is living in poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The speaker reportedly asked parliamentarians to observe a minute of silence<\/a> to back the president’s efforts to “build a modern Egyptian state”, the website Middle East Eye reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was during this speech that he praised “the infrastructure that Germany has constructed, which is a model for the whole world”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The remarks were reported by pro-government media outlets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Adolf Hitler led Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, orchestrating the systematic murder of as many as 11 million people – six million of whom were killed because they were Jewish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Opponents quickly condemned the comments online, saying they compared President Sisi to Hitler and could ruin Egypt’s standing in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Abdel Aal later told Egypt Today that Hitler “committed a lot of crimes which can never be praised”<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “No country can develop without a strong infrastructure, and this is the only thing I was referring to in my statements,” he was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi – who took power in 2013 as the leader of a military coup – there has been a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent, and protests are very rare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Building nations in times of transition requires harsh measures… because it is during these times that institutions are built and infrastructure is laid down.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Egypt’s parliamentary speaker has sparked outrage online after praising Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s infrastructure projects. Ali Abdel Aal made the comments while defending Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi development plans. “Hitler had his mistakes, but what allowed him to expand eastward and westward was that he created a strong infrastructure,” the speaker said. Mr Abdel Aal has since said his… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-3782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-egypt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3783,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3782\/revisions\/3783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}