Cairo 24 reported that the Egyptian authorities had closed the shrine of Imam Hussein bin Ali for three days.
It’s worth noting that the closure occurred in previous years during the Ashura period, but Egyptian authorities didn’t link the closure to this particularly symbolic religious occasion for Shiite Muslims. They considered the closure to be solely related to ongoing maintenance and construction.
However, the recurrence of the closures every year at the same time has begun to raise suspicions among Egypt’s Shiite minority, who believe the goal is to prevent them from performing religious rituals. This is what some individuals affiliated with this religious minority in Egypt have expressed to us.
There are no accurate official or unofficial statistics on the number of Shiites in Egypt, but Shiism represents a fundamental part of Egypt’s history, not only during the Fatimid era that built Cairo and made it the capital of the Fatimid state, but also before that, according to what some of those who are considered part of the Shiite minority in Egypt say. They link the history of Shiism in Egypt to the arrival of some of Imam Ali’s companions and one of his leaders who appointed him to be a governor there in his name.
No one disputes the historical status of Shiism in Egypt, but regarding the current situation of Egypt’s Shiites, we do not have any objective or accurate data on their numbers. We only have various sources and knowledge of some of the leaders of this minority.
