Bassem Youssef: Islam Is Being Hijacked By Those Who Have Power

Speaking on HuffPost Live with host Ahmed Shihab-Eldin on Wednesday, Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef said that Islam was being hijacked by people in power who were trying to strip it of its spirituality.

"Anybody who is using religion to control you, they consider themselves a better Muslim, Christian, Jew than you are, so you have to follow," Youssef said, adding that although members of the Muslim Brotherhood call themselves Islamists, he doesn't know what that means.

"I don't know what 'Islamists' is," said Youssef, who is the host of a comedic show in Egypt called "El Bernameg" ("The Program.") "I know one religion: Islam."

Known as "The Jon Stewart of Egypt," Youssef made international headlines recently when an Egyptian court ordered his arrest for insulting Islam and the nation's president, Mohamed Morsi, as part of a wider crackdown on dissent. A lawsuit that sought to ban Youssef's show for insulting Morsi and for making sexual innuendos was thrown out by a Cairo judge in early April on grounds of free speech, the Associated Press reported.

Watch the video above to see Youssef discuss fundamentalist Islam.