CAIRO: Egypt’s Religious Endowments Ministry has started the installation of surveillance cameras inside and outside Cairo’s key mosques to monitor all activities of extremist groups, Youm7 reported.
The ministry explained that the surveillance systems will monitor imams, preachers and secure mosques from embezzlement and terrorists targeting mosques and to ensure no extremist speeches and sermons are being delivered.
The ministry started with installing the cameras at Cairo’s Amr ibn Al-Aas, Al Noor, Al Hussein and Al Sayeda Zaynab mosques.
The surveillance systems will be installed in historical mosques in Cairo, then in grand mosques in other governorates to protect them from terrorist groups, bombings and robberies, the ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
Sheikh Mohammed Abdel Razek Omar of the ministry said the ministry decided to do so, fearing for the lives of prayers and preachers after mentally ill man has stabbed four worshipers at a mosque in Upper Egypt.
On August 6, a suicide bomber has killed 15 people in an attack on a mosque southwest Saudi Arabia.