Egyptian human rights organization blames Friday riots on - Hamas!

Egypt's Shorouk News reports that an Egyptian NGO called the "Justice and Development Organization for Human Rights" is claiming that the pro-Morsi rioters in Tahrir Square on Friday were not Egyptian, but Hamas members!

According to their statement, the group claimed that followers of Abu Marzouk, head of the Political Bureau of the Hamas movement, initiated the riots against the liberals and that the masked rioters were not young members of the Muslim Brotherhood as had been assumed.

The group claims that Hamas wants to play a big role in the internal affairs of Egypt.

The claim seems unlikely. Hamas does not want to upset the Egyptian Islamist government. And the NGO gives no evidence, as far as I can tell. This bizarre charge seems more designed to distance Egypt from Gaza - which most Egyptians aren't keen to subsidize - and to reduce intra-Egyptian tensions by taking the Muslim Brotherhood off the hook for the riots.

It just goes to show that Egyptian "human rights" NGOs are just as crazy and prone to conspiracy theories as Egypt's politicians, TV stars and journalists.