Al-Ashaal: Banning Hamas is a historic mistake

Banning Hamas is a historic mistake and any government that implements the ban will be judged in history until the end of time, Dr Abdullah Al-Ashaal, professor of political science at Egyptian universities, said yesterday.

Al-Ashaal called on Egypt not to enforce the verdict issued by the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters on Tuesday, which demanded banning Hamas’ activities in Egypt, considering it a terrorist organisation and closing all its premises. He believes that the judgment was a direct result of a media campaign that promoted against Hamas and the Gaza strip recently.

Al-Ashaal ruled out the likelihood that the Egyptian state would respond positively to this verdict against Hamas.

He said, in an exclusive statement to Quds Press, that, “The verdict issued against Hamas is a point of view of one of the Egyptian courts, but the Egyptian state has the authority to implement the decision in a political way. I do not think that the decision is politically driven, but it is a result of media campaign against Hamas and the Gaza Strip.

“Perhaps this media campaign brought things to the courts, which are being used for political scheming, so I do not think that the Egyptian state will respond to this lawsuit.”

Al-Ashaal asserted that implementing the verdict would be a mistake historically and strategically and said: “If the Egyptian state implements this verdict, I believe it would be a historic mistake that would be blamed on any authority that implements it until the end of time.”

He added: “Egypt’s strategic interest is that the resistance would be the baseline for any Egyptian support. If the Egyptian state implemented this ruling, it would implement it only for the benefit of Israel.

“The thinking here is that Egypt has a disagreement with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) so all those who are in a relationship with the MB will be part of this disagreement. But I think that this step, if taken, would be against Egyptian national security and therefore the interest of Egypt is to support and promote the resistance, while focusing with Israel on returning Palestinian rights.”