Assad: Ousting Morsi of Egypt means "The fall of political Islam"

BEIRUT--Embattled President of Syria on Wednesday praised the protests in Egypt against their leader and said his overthrow by the military means at the end of "Political Islam".

President Bashar Assad, who is trying to crush a revolt against his own rule, said that Egyptians have discovered the "lies" of the Muslim Brotherhood.

He spoke in an interview with the State newspaper Al - Thawra printed in its entirety on Thursday. Excerpts were published Wednesday night on Facebook from the Presidency of Syria page, coinciding with the announcement of the Egyptian army's overthrow of Morsi.

"What is happening in Egypt is the fall of the so-called political Islam," said Assad. "This is the fate of anyone in the world who attempt to use religion for political interests or factions."

Assad is facing an insurgency in the country and he has refused to resign, calling the rebellion of an international conspiracy led out by Islamic extremists and groups fundamentalists such as the Muslim Brotherhood of Syria, a subsidiary of the Egyptian group with the same name that owns the Morsi.

Earlier Wednesday, Syrian Information Minister Omran al - Zoubi urged Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to resign in line with the wishes of its people.

Al - Zoubi told reporters in Damascus that Muslim Brotherhood Morsi is a "tool of the United States" and a "terrorist" organization.

Morsi last month infuriated officials announcing Syrians was cutting ties with Damascus and close its Embassy in the capital of Syria.

Assad's father, the late President Hafez Assad, repressed a rebellion led by the Muslim Brotherhood in the northern city of Hama in 1982. The Syrian forces, led by the brother of the President and of the special forces of his minority alawite sect, razed much of the city an air of three weeks and the ground, killing attack at between 10,000 and 20,000 people.

"The experience of the ruling of the Muslim Brotherhood failed before even started because it goes against the nature of the people", Assad said in the interview, charging that the brotherhood aims to disseminate the fight in the Arab world.

Earlier the HuffPost:

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