It amazes me how rumors start, spread, and then flourish. I think this gossip from Egypt shows how people CAN exploit social media, even when it comes to travel. I suspect that, if it were actually true, there might be at least a small influx of tourists to see the Pyramids!
NYT:
Contrary to Gossip, Pyramids Have No Date With the Wrecking Ball
The claim that radical Islamists had, in the name of the Muslim aversion to artifacts of paganism, asked President Mohamed Morsi to have the pyramids torn down apparently began with a June 30 item in Rose el-Youssef, an Egyptian magazine that for years was a mouthpiece for Hosni Mubarak, Mr. Morsi’s ousted predecessor.
...
None of that nebulous sourcing did anything to tamp down the steam sizzling from online reports that began appearing this month, most of them quoting one another rather than an original source, warning that the Islamists wanted to finally finish the job that the Islamic conqueror of Egypt had started (although he hadn’t), and that President Morsi was doing nothing about it (which he wasn’t).
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“These stories are cheap acts aimed at hurting Egypt and its image, and Mr. Morsi as well,” said Mr. Nur el-Din, the antiquities professor. He said Mr. Morsi had reassured Egypt’s tourism officials that the country’s antiquities were in no danger from the new government.