4 arrested in Egypt after shoe thrown at Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meets people as he visits the Al-Hussein mosque, named after Prophet Mohammed's grandson Hussein ibn Ali, in old Cairo on Feb. 5, 2013. Ahmadinejad was both kissed and scolded on Tuesday when he began the first visit to Egypt by an Iranian president since Tehran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

5

Feb

2013

6:04pm, EST

By Ayman Mohyeldin, Correspondent, NBC News

CAIRO -- Egypt's security arrested four men who were protesting outside a Cairo mosque, where the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was praying.
The men, including a Syrian, belong to the ultra-conservative Sunni Salafist movement.
One man threw a shoe at Ahmadinejad, a Shiite, who was never in any danger.
The Al-Hussein Mosque is revered by Shiite Muslims, who are widely disliked by conservative Sunni Muslims, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi was previously a member of the Brotherhood.
Many Sunni Muslim groups have denounced the Iranian president’s visit to Cairo and have called on Egypt’s government to prevent Ahmadinejad from visiting any religious sites that are significant to Shiite Muslims.
Ahmadinejad met with Sunni Islam's most senior scholar at Al Azhar shortly before he went to pray at the Al-Hussein Mosque.