From: People For Peace
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2012
There are several reasons why Egypt will never be at peace despite the call by Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi for national unity following his victory in Egypt’s first democratically presidential elections. Mr Morsi won 51.73 percent of the vote in last-week’s run-off, beating former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
[image]Official symbol of Muslim Brotherhood
;
[image]President Morsi claims he will unite Egyptians
Although speaking on Egyptian television late on Sunday evening, Morsi vowed to “protect the rights of women and children”, as well as Christians and Muslims alike, the official symbol of Muslim Brotherhood and motto, Muslims are called to be prepared to fight the enemies of God, of which Christians are included.
[image][editorial cartoon] puppet, labeled Morsi; operated by Military and Islamic Clerics as the 2 pupeteers
Cartoon courtesy Daily Nation
The fact that the republic of Egypt has recognized Islam as the state religion since 1980, talking of protecting the rights of Christians is almost impossible. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, with around 80 million Muslims, comprising 94.7 percent of the population, as of 2010.
On June 30 last year Muslims looted and torched Christian homes and businesses in the village of western Kolosna in Samalut, Minya province. The violence broke out when a Coptic couple was returning to Kolosna by bus when the wife was severely sexually harassed by Muslims at the bus terminal. The husband tried to defend his wife but was severely beaten.
This is to signal that Christians have no business in that country. Police cannot help much since majority of them are Muslims. Christians have been harassed in an attempt to keep them from voting in the country’s presidential election.
Coptic Christians, being the largest religious minority in Egypt, are the most negatively affected by possibly discriminatory legistlation. They have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d’etat led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles in building new churches.
The Catholic population in Egypt is considerably small as compared to the rest of the Christian population in Egypt with only 14 dioceses. The Catholic population in Egypt is said to have begun during the British control of Egypt- many returned to Europe after the 1952 Revolution in Egypt, which also caused the overthrow and exile of King Farouk of Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood removed Hosni Mubarak from power for one reason- that he had stayed in power too long and failed to notice warning signs of change, most notably over lack of real democratic elections, rather than a cynical facsimile.
They also feared Mr. Mubarak was grooming his younger son Gamal for the top job, creating the kind of dynastic arrangement seen in North Korea and Syria. Promised 2010 elections would be “fair and free,” but this did not happen in the parliamentary polls in which tricks were used to invalidate all Muslim Brotherhood candidates, arguing that there was no way Mr. Mubarak’s ruling party gained around 90 percent of seats.
The Brotherhood also accused Mubarak of stashing estimated at US$30-billion offshore in the usual secret bank accounts in the U.S., Switzerland and Britain. There was also pricey real estate including a Georgian townhouse in London, handy for shopping at Harrods, and properties in Los Angeles, Washington and New York. Back home there was a luxurious villa in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh. Much of the loot was in the name of Mr. Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne, who has a British passport.
The fact that the Muslim Brotherhood opposes secular tendencies of Islamic nations and wants return to the precepts of the Qur’an and rejection of Western influences as well as extreme Sufism, and that it is the most powerful political force in Egypt, are some of the reasons that Egypt will not be the same again.
According to the Brotherhood’s motto, “Allah is their objective. The Prophet is their leader. Qur’an is their law. Jihad is their way. Dying in the way of Allah is their highest hope.” It explains why they made sure Mubarak was removed even if doing so could result to death. More than 800 people are thought to have been killed by the police during the protest.
Currently, the Egyptian Brotherhood exists as a militant clandestine group, and has been connected to many underground political operations. In other countries, they have more prominent roles, including parliamentary seats.
Their political party belongs to the “second generation” or “middle generation” (jil al-wasat). Many of the Egyptian Brotherhood members were activists in Islamist student organizations in the 1970s- they are skilled and politically savvy.
Founded in Egypt in 1928, the Brotherhood is the oldest and largest Islamist movement in the world, with affiliates in most Muslim countries and adherents in Europe and the United States. This demonstrates how forceful it is.
After a failed assassination attempt against Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nassar, the group was banned in 1954 and driven underground. New laws were passed during the Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak regimes that marked police harassment and severe punishment for anyone openly associated with the Brotherhood.
Although driven underground, the Brotherhood continued to provide social services to many poor Egyptians, a traditionally rural and religious sector that readily identified with the Brotherhood’s Islamist message.
The Muslim Brotherhood began to emerge in politics after suffering deadly suppression by the Mubarak regime. After senior leaders formally renounced and abandoned the use of terror, the Brotherhood began fielding parliamentary candidates as Independents during elections.
However, for the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi victory marks the beginning of the country’s government adherent to blatant religious-Islamist ideology. It has also marked the end of the era of secular colonels who ruled Egypt since the 1950s.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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