Youssef al-Qaradawi, president of the International Union of Islamic Scholars, has described the burning down of a church in Soul as “the work of the devil.” He called it a “plot against the January 25 Revolution to distort its image.”

Al-Qaradawi's comments were made in a statement released yesterday in which he singled out those who had been in power as the plotters.

“The tails of the former regime and remnants of the fallen party [NDP] must be behind it [the plot] as well as the gangs of the dissolved state security apparatus which played the sectarian card to create which it uses to cause divisions whenever it wants, as proven by the many documents obtained by the revolutionaries.”

Al-Qaradawi went on to urge Egyptians to support the new government led by Essam Sharaf and for different factions to work together in building the nation.

“The revolution’s enemies,” he said, “have run the country for 30 years.”