Egyptian Ramy Jan was scheduled to appear at a Dec. 5 event at Georgetown University until it was discovered he was the leader of the fledgling Egyptian Nazi Party and was promptly disinvited.
The event, “Egypt and the Struggle for Democracy,” was to be hosted by Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and has since been postponed until late January.
Jan is a founding member of Egypt’s Nazi Party, a small and insignificant group in Egyptian politics, The New York Times reported. However, the views he espouses are extreme. He appeared on Dream1 TV in Egypt in September 2011 and stated in remarks translated by The Middle East Media Research Institute that he does not recognize the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and that the Egyptian Nazi party has aims to build a nuclear reactor.
“Our political goal is to make the Arab race, or Arabic speakers, the best race,” Head of the Egyptian Nazi Party Muhi Al-Din Gamal said in the video. This opinion stands in direct conflict with the ACMCU’s mission, posted on its website, which is “to improve relations between the Muslim world and the West.”
Georgetown originally invited Jan as a representative of Christians Against the Coup, which did not support the military ouster of then-president Hosni Mubarak.
Founding director of the center, professor John Esposito, declined The Hoya’s request for comment. However, in an article on The New York Times’ website, he said that the organizers had not known about Jan’s views.
“This was new to us that he had a background like that and as soon as it came to our attention he was immediately disinvited,” Esposito said. “We had no idea that there was this issue out there.”
ACMCU Associate Director Kristine Kidwell also said that the center did not know about Jan’s position in the Egyptian Nazi Party.