Safwat Hijazi or Safwat Hegazi is an Egyptian imam and television preacher who is on the list of "Individuals banned from the UK for stirring-up hatred".[1]
The government of the United Kingdom declared that he is "considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by glorifying terrorist violence."
Hijazi was investigated in Egypt in 2006 for issuing a fatwā calling for the death of visiting Israeli officials. He later withdrew the fatwa.[2]
On December 3, 2008 Hijazi made the statement about Israeli Jews; “Dispatch those sons of apes and pigs to the Hellfire on the wings of Qassam rockets.”[3]
In 2009 he declared in a television interview that Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and the Baha'i Faith were not religions but were man-made. He said Baha'is were a current danger and fought alongside Zionists in 1948.[4]
In an address that aired Al-Nas TV on July 11, 2010, Safwat called on parents to "our children sit in front of the computer and the playstation, and play games that will never lead them to wage Jihad."[5]