Islam Times - Egypt club suspends striker over MB gesture

Islam Times - Egypt’s Al-Ahly football club has suspended striker Ahmed Abdel-Zaher from the upcoming competitions after he made a four-finger hand gesture linked to supporters of Muslim Brotherhood, reports say.

The Egyptian football club announced on Monday that striker Zaher would be excluded from next month’s Fifa Club World Cup held in Morocco, as a punishment for giving a four-finger salute during the match, AFP reported.

The 28-year-old forward held up to his chest four fingers, while celebrating his second goal in a 2-0 win over South Africa's Orlando Pirates in the final of the African Champions League in Cairo, on November 10.

The four-finger gesture, called Raba’a (four) in Arabic is used by supporters of the ousted President Mohamed Morsi, as a symbol of solidarity with him.

The sign also commemorates the massacre of hundreds of supporters of Muslim Brotherhood during the Egyptian army’s deadly crackdown on pro-Morsi sit-ins at the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo, in August.

About 1,000 people were killed after the government of army-appointed interim President Adly ordered a fierce clampdown on Morsi supporters’ protest camps on August 14.

Ahmaed Abdel-Zaher’s suspension comes after Egypt's Kung Fu Association banned Kung Fu champion Mohamed Youssef from international championships for two years for wearing a T-shirt bearing the sign of Raba’a at a tournament in Russia, in October.

"We expect the club's board and the Egyptian Football Federation to take action against the player and suspend and fine Abdel-Zaher the way Kung Fu fighter Mohamed Youssef was," Egypt's Minister of State for Sport, Taher Abu Zeid said in a statement on Monday.

There has been a surge in crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood group since the ouster of the first democratically elected President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, who is a Muslim Brotherhood member, early in July.

On July 3, the head of the Egyptian armed forces General Fattah al-Sisi toppled Mohamed Morsi in a “military coup,” suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament. On the following day, he appointed the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mahmoud Mansour, as the new interim president.