Egypt Mosque attack: Imam vows to finish sermon

Abdel Fattah suffered bruising, but his health appears to be improving and he hopes to be back on his feet to continue the sermon that was brutally interrupted.

Al-Husayniyah (Egypt), Nov 27: Deadly blasts in at the Egypt's North Sinai Rawda mosque on Friday left 305 dead, and now the Imam who survived the massacre vowed from his hospital bed to go back and resume the sermon he could not finish.

Mohammed Abdel Fattah, 26, was delivering the Friday sermon at the North Sinai Rawda mosque when blasts erupted.

"I was only two minutes into my sermon when I heard two explosions outside the mosque, and then I saw worshippers running in horror," he said.

"Then people entered the mosque and began firing at everyone who was still standing," the preacher said from his hospital bed in the Nile Delta town of Al-Husayniya.

Abdel Fattah -- who has been imam for two years at the Rawda mosque frequented by Sufis -- said his sermon on that tragic day was about "Mohammed, the prophet of humanity". The imam fell from the raised minbar, or pulpit, when the attack broke out and was trampled by worshippers who tried to flee the carnage. And when he hit the ground, people stepped over him, before the bodies of those shot by the attackers piled on top of him, pinning him down and preventing him from lifting his head to see what was going on.

"As soon as the shooting started I fell. I didn't see or feel anything except for the two or three bloodied bodies that fell on top of me," he said.

Among the first casualties was 62-year-old Fathy Ismail, the mosque's muezzin who called the faithful to prayer. Authorities said up to 30 militants in camouflage clothing and flying the black banner of the Islamic State group surrounded the mosque and opened fire on the faithful during the main weekly prayers.

Abdel Fattah suffered bruising, but his health appears to be improving and he hopes to be back on his feet to continue the sermon that was brutally interrupted.

"If my health allows it, I will return next Friday week (to Rawda mosque) and finish my sermon," he said.

PTI