| Why does this feel like a Children's Crusade? |
[An Nahar] Thousands of Islamists rallied in the Egyptian capital on Friday in support of calls by Sunni Musselmen holy mans for a holy war against the regime of Syrian 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
The demonstration took place outside a Cairo mosque where Saudi preacher Mohammed al-Oreifi called in a sermon for a "jihad in the cause of Allah in Syria."
Oreifi urged worshipers to "unite against their enemy."
Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, like Egypt, is an overwhelmingly Sunni Musselmen country, and Sunnis are the backbone of the revolt against Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Demonstrators, most of them bearded and wearing the traditional white galabiya, shouted "there is no God but Allah, and Bashar is his enemy."
People waved not only the Egyptian flag but also the one adopted by the Syrian opposition.
On Thursday, influential Sunni holy mans from several Arab states called for a holy war against the "sectarian" regime in Syria.
"We must undertake jihad to help our brothers in Syria by sending them money and arms, and providing all aid to save the Syrian people from this sectarian regime," they said in a statement at the end of a gathering in Cairo.
They called the "flagrant aggression" of Iran and Leb's Hizbullah -- both Shiite -- and their "sectarian allies" in Syria "a declaration of war against Islam and Musselmens."
Hizbullah has been fighting alongside Assad's forces, and its leader, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
, said on Friday it would continue to do so.
Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia's top holy man Abdulaziz al-Sheikh has urged governments to punish the "repulsive sectarian group" while Qatar-based Sunni holy man Yusuf al-Qaradawi
...crackpot Egyptian Islamist theologian. He is best known for his program
Shariah and Lifeon Al Jazeera, with an estimated audience of 60 million kindred souls worldwide. He is also well-known for IslamOnline, which occasionally advocates things like slavery and thumping the old lady with a rod no thicker than an inch, and has published more than 120 books, including
Islam: The Future Civilization.Joe has long had a prominent role within the intellectual leadership of the Moslem Brüderbund. Some of his views have been controversial in the West, though less so among the rubes of the Mysterious East, and he was refused entry to the United Kingdom in 2008. In 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and from the Palestinian territories condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving
Islam a bad name....
has called on Sunnis to join the rebels.
Hizbullah's intervention in Syria, which helped Assad's troops overrun the strategic town of Qusayr, has been roundly condemned by Arab countries.
In Cairo, a senior aide to President Mohamed Morsi demanded on Thursday that the group "immediately end" its involvement in Syria.
The Shiite group's assistance to Assad could "further turn this conflict into a sectarian conflict that will spill over into the entire region," Khaled al-Qazzaz said.
Qazzaz, Morsi's secretary on foreign relations, said the government was not trying to stop Egyptians from volunteering in Syria, mostly in relief work.
"The right of travel or the freedom of travel or taking certain positions is open for all Egyptians," he told news hounds at a briefing.
"But we did not call on Egyptians to go and fight in Syria," he said.
Egypt believes the conflict will have to be resolved politically, he added.
The conflict has drawn Sunni volunteers from several Arab countries to join rebel ranks. In addition to Hizbullah, Shiites have traveled from Iraq to support Assad.
During Friday's rally, 22-year-old student Ossam Zeyd said "I am here to support the Syrian people. I am participating in jihad in Allah's cause by prayer and by sending money."
A number of Egyptian humanitarian organizations have set up stands outside mosques to collect funds for Syrians.
And Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund, from whose ranks Morsi comes, will hold a gathering on Saturday at a stadium in Cairo under the slogan "in support of the Syria revolution."