Interestingly, in the meatime, the US installed military junta has called off the annual Abu Hassira annual mulid (birthday) festival. The festival draws thousands of Jew pilgrims from Israel and around the world every year to the tomb of Jewish holy man Abu Hassira.
On Wednesday, Cairo informed Tel Aviv that it would not ‘appropriate’ for pilgrims to make the annual visit to Demitiouh village in the northern province of Beheira. The week-long festival is held on January 15 each year.
Abu Hassirs (1807-1880) was born as Yaccov Aharon in Morocco. According to Jewish legend – Yaccov on a trip from his homeland to Jerusalem, crossed the Mediterranean riding on a hassira (mat) until he reached Alexandria. He settled in Dimitouh village some 150 kilimeter north of Cairo.
Abu Hassira, a cobbler, is believed to have been a miracle-worker aka Messiah. Jerry Rabow in his book ’50 Jewish Messiahs’ (published in 2002) has documented the stories of 50 Jewish religious leaders who claimed to be the “Promised Jewish Messiah” since the crufication of Jesus of Nazreth. Most prominents among them was the 17th century Jewish Messiah, Shabbatai Tzvi, whose followers, the ‘Crypto-Jews’ are still found among Turkish secular elites faking as ‘Christians’ or ‘Muslims’.
“Here lies a good man who came from Morocco and went back to the dust” is engraved in Hebrew on his gravestone. Pieces of paper listing the wishes of the previous year’s pilgrims can be found near the memorial. Photo on top right.
Emad El-Gilda, the ruling National Democratic Party’s MP for Beheira, recently asked Prime Minister Atef Ebeid at a People’s Assembly session to order the immediate halt of “Israeli celebrations on Egyptian soil, especially since they include rituals that violate Egyptian customs and traditions.” El-Gilda cautioned that this year’s celebrations “are bound to have negative psychological consequences for Egyptians, who view them as a political demonstration.”
“The mulid of Abu Hassira turns the quiet, placid life of Demitiouh into hell because of the tight security measures taken to protect participants,” Mukhtar El-Sweifi wrote in a letter to Al-Ahram. “It is an opportunity for Israelis to mock and ridicule Egyptians in their own homeland every year.”
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