Iran seeks to play down shoe thrown at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Iran has sought to play down an incident in Cairo in which a protester tried to throw a shoe at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures at
the Al-Hussein mosque in Cairo Photo: REUTERS/Amr
Abdallah Dalsh
A Syrian protester in Egypt was released on bail after trying to attack
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
with a shoe as he came out of a Cairo mosque.
Despite a successful start to Mr Ahmadinejad's visit to Egypt, the first by
an Iranian leader since 1979, ideological, political and religious differences
soon came to the fore.
On Wednesday, Mr Ahmadinejad had to listen as his host, President Mohammed
Morsi, denounced Iran's close ally President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, at a
meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation. The day before, he had to
endure denunciations of Iran's promotion of Shia Islam by leading Sunni clerics.
The final insult came as he left the Hussein Mosque in Central Cairo on
Tuesday evening, when he was met by a small placarding-waving protest by
Syrians. One man tried to hit Mr Ahmadinejad on the head with his shoe, a
particular insult in the Islamic world, as the group shouted: "You killed our
brothers."
In fact, he struck Mr Ahmadinejad's bodyguard
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