May 3, 2013

Important message for those concerned

Several statements were made describing me and the officers of April 8 as members of the Muslim Brotherhood. God knows the source of these rumors, their purpose, and why they were made at this time.

And I tell them the following:

First: I participated in many million-man marches during the rule of the military council, at a time when the Brotherhood did not participate in these million-man marches, and many of the Tahrir revolutionaries know this.

Second: If I were a member of the Brotherhood, I would not have announced my joining the revolutionaries in Tahrir Square during the Mohamed Mahmoud events, even though the Brotherhood did not participate in this sit-in. So, if I were a member of the Brotherhood, I would not have participated in this sit-in.

Third: If I were a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, I would not have been imprisoned for six months during President Morsi’s term, from July to December 2012.

As for why I do not criticize the Brotherhood, this is due to the following reasons:

First: I now follow the military establishment, and it no longer rules Egypt as was the case during Field Marshal Tantawi’s era. The situation now is different from what it was during the Mohamed Mahmoud events.

Second: I am not in favor of overthrowing President Morsi because this means overthrowing the democracy called for by the revolution. Consequently, the remnants of the previous regime will take over power and the rule will be military dictatorship, and I do not support this.

Third: I do not believe that the Brotherhood will penetrate all of the state's sovereign institutions, because these institutions, such as the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Interior, and the judiciary, are difficult to empower within four years, as they require at least fifteen years to become Brotherhood-affiliated.

A message to the Muslim Brotherhood: Your rule has ended for one year, and there are three more years to go. It is in my interest that you succeed so that the democratic experiment in Egypt and consequently in the rest of the Arab countries will succeed. If you do not take advantage of this opportunity, you will be finished, and the people’s trust in you will end.

If you are planning to liberate Al-Aqsa, it will not be liberated until you first unify the internal front and end your cooperation with America and Israel. The evidence for what I am saying is our glorious Islamic history. Salah al-Din did not defeat the Crusaders until he unified his internal front, as did Qutuz and other great Muslim leaders. I wish you would read the reasons for our victories so that you may succeed in our renaissance and the liberation of our occupied land. As for me, I do not want to get involved in the current power struggle, based on the hadith of the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, on the authority of Abu Dharr, may God Almighty be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said: You will conquer Egypt, and it is a land in which the qirat is called, so when you conquer it, be good to Its people, for they have a covenant and kinship, or he said: a covenant and marriage. So if you see two men disputing over it in the place of a brick, then leave it. He said: I saw Abd al-Rahman ibn Shurahbil ibn Hasana and his brother Rabi’ah disputing over it in the place of a brick, so I left it.”