Egyptian "expert" says Jews stole Star of David from Muslims; Menorah symbol stolen from Romans

Al Ahram quotes an Egyptian "antiquities expert" as saying that the Star of David and the Menorah symbols of Judaism are stolen from other cultures.

Dr. Rahim Rihan, who we have seen recently as claiming that there were no Temples in Jerusalem and that Israel is using super-secret chemicals to dissolve the Al Aqsa Mosque, is apparently going to keep on making things up as long as the Arabic media quotes him seriously.

He says that the Star of David as a Jewish symbol has its roots in Prague in 1648. A Jewish army contingent was defending the city and the Emperor of Austria, Ferdinand III, suggested the star as the symbol of the Jewish troops, using the Greek Delta (triangle) character and doubling/inverting it to symbolize David. In fact, says Rihan, it is an ancient Islamic symbol.

This is a very nice story, but it doesn't explain why the Leningrad Codex Hebrew Bible of 1008 has this on its cover:

Or why a 3rd century synagogue was decorated with this:

It is true that other cultures used a six-pointed star and it wasn't seen as being exclusively Jewish until relatively recently, but it clearly predates Islam.

Rihan doubles down with his discussion of the menorah symbol. He says that it is really a Roman symbol, and that the Biblical description of the menorah is really from the Romans - who lived quite a few centuries later.

Here's a menorah on a Hashmonean coin circa 40 BCE, already a clear Jewish symbol:

Dr. Rihan is clearly enjoying making things up and being taken seriously by the Egyptian media. And the Egyptian media is happy pushing his lies.

So we can expect to see many more of them.