Athar Al Hakim, ‘I fully support throwing shoes at Shafiq’

Former Egyptian actress Athar Al Hakim said that she fully supports the recent incident when people threw shoes at Egyptian presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq, who was the former prime minister in the government of ousted Egyptian president Husni Mubarak. When Shafiq went to cast his ballot last week in the first free and democratic Egyptian Presidential Elections, he faced a crowd of angry citizens shouting, ‘Here comes the thief’, and then the crowd began throwing shoes at him as he was entering his car. “I am for the attack made by citizens against presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq and throwing shoes at him, because he repeatedly aggravated people in the recent period with his actions,” Athar said during an interview on the show ‘Al Hakika’ (The Truth), aired on the Egyptian satellite channel Dream. “Shafiq made threats against the Egyptian army that if he wins the elections he will give them a hard time…. and it makes no sense for a person who may be president of Egypt after the January 25 Revolution to say that the former ousted president (referring to Husni Mubarak) is his role model and that he is sad that Mubarak is in inside prison,” she added. Athar stressed that she will respect Shafiq as president if he is elected democratically without fraud, although if in fact Shafiq wins, there will be unrest in the country and most likely conditions will become worse because there are many people who do not want him in power. Athar said that the next Egyptian president cannot support Israel as is the case with Shafiq. Athar also said that she is praying that a second revolution does not break out after announcing the results of the presidential election. The actress accused Shafiq and presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi of using their wealth to buy as many votes as possible, corrupting the electoral process. Athar said that she considers presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abu Al Fotouh the most appropriate candidate for his supporters are the organizers of the January 25 Revolution.