Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa, Egypt’s minister of religious endowment, recently claimed that the “Zionists” sponsor and support atheism and homosexuality in an effort to undermine the stability of the region.

Gomaa’s comments were made in an interview on Al-Hayat TV, which aired on September 21 and was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“There are two reasons” for atheism which has become a widespread phenomenon in Egypt, Gomaa said in the interview.

One of those reasons, he said, is “the hijacking of religious discourse by the extremists and terrorists”.

He then went on to claim that the second reason for atheism spreading in Egypt is “the colonialist Zionist force which sponsors and supports atheists and atheism, and finances homosexuals and homosexuality.”

“They want to undermine the stability of our region any way they can – by means of terrorism, of atheism, of nihilism and of deviance,” claimed Gomaa.