Egyptian tyrants are paving the way for further bloodshed

I have been following the events in Egypt with great interest since the beginning of the Arab-Egyptian movement against Hosni Mubarak’s authoritarian regime which was also subservient to the West and Israel.

As is the case for millions of Arabs, I had and continue to expect great results contributing to the rebuilding of the Arab nation and its thriving, as well as develop their capabilities to contribute to human civilisation and improve its self-dependence, because Egypt occupies a great place in my heart, as well as the hearts of millions.

We inherited the concepts of Arab pride from our parents and grandparents who have always linked it to Egypt’s pride and honour, but the current course of events have not confirmed our convictions, and instead cause us to question all of the traditional concepts handed down to us.

These events all indicate that the current Egyptian leadership have not lived up to our expectations, and it is much too weak to lead the country to safety and stability. It also indicates that it is very naive and shallow, as it is leading the country into the unknown.

If these political, intellectual, cultural, and religious leaderships are leading Egypt into ambiguity and shame, then it’s better for it not to take the Arab nation as a whole with it.

The Egyptian leaders are disappointing and there is nothing on the surface that leads us to think that what is happening in Egypt is just a cloud that will disappear. Instead, it seems like the Egyptian night is long and will only get longer.

Between Tunisia and Egypt

It is clear from the development in the events in both Egypt and Tunisia that the Tunisian leaders are very superior to their Egyptian counterparts in terms of culture and the art of political leadership of the country.

There are those who try to push Tunisia into an abyss, but there are also elements insisting on keeping Tunisia on safe land and refusing to strain the situation in a manner that will cost the Tunisian people dearly. The Tunisian political leaders were able to contain the extremists and imbeciles of all the parties and keep their problems within their dialogue rooms. They also insisted on the need to find compromises in order for the country to avoid bloodshed.

On the other hand, Egypt is very different. There are many who are supposedly politically sophisticated thinkers who do not promote fighting, strife, and the destruction of the Egyptian state.

There are media figures who are very destructive and do not fear God in Egypt, and their top concern is incitement, misinformation and corruption.

This brings to mind the Egyptian female media personality who, in response to those accusing her of being violent, said she considered it to be an honour. This media personality believed that violence was an honour she hadn’t risen to yet.

I sometimes follow the Egyptian satellite station called “Sada El Balad”, and always find that this station has a tremendous impact on the disruption of a number of countries, not only in Egypt. It is specialised in broadcasting incitements and fabrications.

I find that most of its famous guests, the writings of whom I used to read, are lacking rationality. I do not know what has happened to their minds, they speak aimlessly, as if they just want to feed a deepening hatred.

Prosecution of Muslim Brotherhood

The Egyptian military has launched a campaign against the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. It arrests the president of the republic, insults and files charges against him, and prosecutes him. Then the Egyptian security forces go after Muslim Brotherhood members, ban their demonstrations, forcefully disperse their sit-ins, and resort to many measures to prevent their freedom of expression. They also close the squares to Brotherhood protestors, absurdly accuse the Egyptian president of conspiring with Hamas, and the list goes on. To top it all off, it declares the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.

Who is truly the terrorist? After all of this, the Muslim Brotherhood is expected to keep quiet and surrender to the inevitable.

Isn’t there one political thinker in Egypt telling the government officials that pressure leads to explosions, and that all the actions against the Muslim Brotherhood will only generate more tension, conflict, rivalry, and hatred?.

What is the logic behind this crackdown which Egyptian officials expect to resume without reactions by the Muslim Brotherhood?

Animals are expected to fight for their honour; if cats were trapped, they turn into lions, so what could a group present in the Egyptian arena since 1928 do; bearing in mind they are the largest Muslim group in the global arena and exists all over the world.

There is short-sighted thinking and performance, as well as closed-mindedness that does not understand the political movement language of the people, political parties, organisations and humanitarian groups.

In battle, smart commanders open an outlet for the enemy to come out of in order to minimise losses on both sides, but this matter is not executed by the current commanders in Egypt. They act like that other party has been wiped from existence, and that there is only one party on the battlefield.

Brotherhood and terrorism

The Muslim Brotherhood has been long known in the Arab arena, and they come in contact with all groups of people. Through their multiple activities, they have become the overwhelming majority amongst the Arab and Muslim people.

According to my studies of Islamic groups, the Muslim Brotherhood is essentially a preaching group, not a Jihadist group. They do not believe in bloody clashes, and prefer to be firm but conciliatory, i.e. when the enemy stands its ground, we concede, and when they concede, we stand our ground.

They rarely resorted to the use of weapons and explosives or killing people, despite sometimes exercising intellectual terrorism, as I was once their victim in this regard.

I had previously said that the Palestinians should spend the money they spend on Hajj on armed struggle, because the latter is a bigger priority than Hajj in the case of the Palestinians, so they turned against me and cursed me in the West Bank in 1981, while I was preforming Friday prayers in the mosque.

However, they were convinced by what I said after Al-Qaradawi published a booked titled Al-Iman wal-Hayat (Faith and Life), in which he said that the acts of jihad are a priority over hajj.

Of course, this reflects the narrow-mindedness and shallowness in the understanding of religion, but it indicates that the Muslim Brotherhood take into account the observations of others and try to modify their positions and views so as not to offend Islam and Muslims.

I have also experienced how some members of the Muslim Brotherhood incite against those from other religions and doctrines, especially Christians and Shiites, but it is possible to influence them to abandon such acts.

Egypt’s leaders describe the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group and we want proof of this. The data of the Egyptian security agencies is not enough, nor is it enough to say that some members of the Brotherhood have been training to use weapons or that it has programmes on how to build explosives on its websites.

These arguments are not convincing, as there are tens of millions of Arabs who have been trained to use weapons and can easily make explosives.

The training and manufacturing skills are provided on the internet and are very easy to acquire. They do not make people terrorists.

The Muslim Brotherhood is located all over the world, and there are no other countries in the world angry with or persecuting the group other than Egypt.

Some Arab regimes have contained the group now and then, but for political rivalry reasons, not terrorism.

Although the Egyptian leadership sees protestors as terrorists, they consider the protestors who took to the streets on June 30th to be the ones who brought them to power.

The whole issue is silly and ultimately result in straining the situation further, thus harming Egypt and the freedoms of the Egyptian people.

Between the monopolist and vengeful

During President Morsi’s rule, the Muslim Brotherhood made big mistakes, which were a result of the intolerant mentality of the Muslim Brotherhood, in addition to all other fanatical Islamic groups.

Their willingness to accept others is weak, and its desire to interact with the people from different spectrums of the community is very limited. This perhaps explains the inability of groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, to govern successfully.

This intolerance and narrow-mindedness prompts the group to monopolise governance, which is what it did during Morsi’s rule.

Many people have written in this regard, and I was one of them. I warned the Brotherhood of making this historic mistake, and as usual, the Islamic movements do not accept advice from those who are not members of their group. Morsi was stubborn which resulted into what we see today.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a monopolistic group, but, according to my observations, the group now ruling Egypt are vengeful and merciless, and are more dangerous to Egypt than Morsi.

Morsi put Egypt in trouble and tried to appease to the Israelis and the Americans, but those who are now ruling Egypt are pulling Egypt off the cliff.

The current leadership is based on revenge and spite, reaching the point of crime, and we can no longer distinguish between those who are malignant and those who are benign. This leadership only believes in force and security measures.

This is a characteristic of the Arab dictators who ended up leading the Arab nation to this bloodshed. How couldn’t they when such a leadership insists on destroying the country and the people, as well as spreading hatred and incitement amongst the people and creating blood feuds that destroy national unity and patriotism.

I hear Egyptian leaders from every party talking about preserving the Egyptian state, but I see them insistently destroying it.

The actions of the current Egyptian leaders are not balanced. They reflect immaturity rather than wisdom. The actions of the leadership, as well as its supportive intellectuals, thinkers, and media, do not contribute to the consolidation of Egyptians’ national unity, but rather, they are a prelude to the great dangers that may befall Egypt. They cite terrorism and bombings, and lead all Egyptians to a historically dark phase.

Nationalism and the Nasserite spirit

It is not enough to talk about the birth of a new Abdel Nasser in Al-Sisi’s clothes, because facts indicate the opposition of what we hear. The new Egyptian leadership did not utter a single word against the Camp David agreement yet, nor has it said anything about the Egypt’s incomplete sovereignty over the Sinai.

Morsi supplied Israel with gas, and Al-Sisi is doing it now. Morsi only blockaded the Palestinian resistance in Gaza a little, while the current leadership of Egypt is acting as the largest supporter of Israel against the Palestinian resistance.

The current Egyptian leadership is as far as possible from Abdel Nasser’s policies, as they are destroying the tunnels in Gaza, closing the Rafah crossing, and are working hard to prevent the smuggling of money and weapons into Gaza.

Egypt is now in another camp that has nothing to do with the pride and dignity of Arabs and the liberation of Palestine, so its leaders cannot claim to be seeking nationalist unionism.

If there is any sort of tension between Hamas – as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood – and the present Egyptian leadership, this should not be reflected on the resistance’s efforts to arm itself against Israel. Every effort an Arab party is making to hinder the resistance is an effort made towards supporting Israel and the continuation of its arrogance and occupation of the land and holy sites.

On the other hand, I assume we have learned the lessons from the bitter events taking place in the Arab arena. It has brought Arab dictators and Western invaders who destroyed the country and the people. Moreover, as a result of their injustice, extremist criminal groups have emerged with no other concern than to get revenge against the authoritarian oppressors.

The leaders of Egypt are now practicing oppression, injustice and tyranny, and are practicing what they rebelled against during Mubarak’s regime. Furthermore, they are employing extremists and criminal groups to explode Egypt and the Egyptians, and no tyrant is not entitled to cast blame on others because they are the ones paving the way for crime and bloodshed.

The author is a professor of politics at An-Najah University in Palestine. This article is a translation of the Arabic text which appeared on Al Jazeera on 26 January, 2014

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.