EGYPT’S defence minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned last Sunday that the army will intervene if violence breaks out in the country where rallies are planned against President Mohamed Mursi this month.
On the eve of the first anniversary of Mursi taking power, he said any demonstrations would be an ‘attack on the will of the people’ and called for ‘political reconciliation’ in the week before mass rallies against Mursi due next Sunday.
‘There is a state of division in society and the continuation of it is a danger to the Egyptian state and there must be consensus among all.
‘The armed forces have the obligation to intervene to stop Egypt from plunging into a dark tunnel of conflict and infighting.’
The working class and young people in Egypt accuse him of hijacking the 2011 uprising that toppled Husni Mubarak’s regime, and the opposition are planning to hold a protest rally on June 30 to mark the day Mursi was sworn in as Egypt’s first civilian and Islamist president.
The defence minister urged Egyptians to set aside their differences, but also said that it is the ‘army’s duty to act to prevent chaos’.
‘It is the national and moral duty of the army to intervene to prevent sectarian strife or the collapse of state institutions,’ Sisi said during a meeting with soldiers.
He also criticised those who make anti-army statements.
Last Friday, a member of Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood party, Mohamed al-Baltagui, criticised the army at a rally organised by supporters of the president ahead of the opposition’s planned protest.
‘Those who think that we ignore the dangers facing the Egyptian nation are mistaken.
We will not remain silent in the face of the country’s plunge into conflict,’ he said.
Tens of thousands of Mursi supporters massed on Friday in a show of strength.
But there are fears ahead of the anti-Mursi rallies that violence could erupt between his supporters and opponents.
Egypt is deeply polarised.
Mursi’s supporters claim he is clearing institutions of decades of corruption, but his critics accuse him of concentrating power in the hands of his Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Since taking office a year ago, Mursi has squared off against the judiciary, media, police and, most recently, artists.
Mohamed El-Baradei, a former chief of UN watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency, has urged the president to resign for the sake of national unity.
‘For Egypt’s sake, I call on President Mohamed Mursi to resign and give us the opportunity to begin a new phase based on the principles of the revolution, which are freedom and social justice’ he said.
A campaign dubbed Tamarod (rebellion in Arabic) first called the anti-Mursi rally to coincide with the first anniversary of his taking office.
Tamarod rapidly picked up steam, and organisers say they have collected 15 million signatures demanding that Mursi step down.
Egypt has been rocked by sometimes deadly violence over the past year.
• Syria’s Prime Minister Dr Wa’il al-Halqi has hailed ‘the honourable national stances of Arab thinkers and clergymen who are defending the Arab causes and spreading the real Islam that preaches amity and tolerance.’
During a meeting last Saturday (22 June) with the Arab intellectual Yehia Abu Zakaria, and coordinator of the Muslim scholars forum in Akkar and North Lebanon, Shaykh Abdul Salam al-Harash, al-Halqi condemned ‘the seditious fatwas of some clergymen who are responsible for tearing apart the social fabric of the Arab nation and sowing the seeds of hatred and killing’.
He also stressed that the Syrians remain steadfast and determined to carry out the political programme to solve the crisis in Syria themselves, as the Syrian army presses ahead with the crackdown against the armed terrorist groups to restore security and stability.
Both Abu Zakaria and al-Harash expressed confidence in the ‘inevitable victory of the Syrian people and the Syrian government’s ability to confront the war against the Syrian economy’.
They also stressed that the ‘Shaykhs of sedition’ who incite killing and hatred are helping to fragment the Muslim world.
In a statement to journalists following the meeting, Abu Zakaria urged those Arab leaderships who conspire against Syria to ‘reconsider their course and political role as their project has failed’ adding:
‘Syria has emerged victorious from the first round as reflected in the G8 summit, and the next victory will be in the international conference.’
He added that Syria is at a historic juncture, and the great victory that will return Syria to the forefront is in the making.
Abu Zakaria said that Egyptian president Mursi ‘committed a strategic mistake in his latest decisions against Syria’ and Egypt must reconsider its position.
For his part, Shaykh al-Harash said the Syrian government is facing a brutal war, adding: ‘We, in Lebanon, are with the Syrian people and leadership, for we are indebted to Syria for the blood of the
Syrian soldiers that was spilled on Lebanese soil in defence of Lebanon’s unity and independence.’
Abu Zakaria said: ‘Two months ago, such a thing would not have been usual in Homs, however three leaflets – one by Al-Nusrah Front and two by Hizb al-Tahrir and its supporters – were enough to change the scene, making people preoccupied with discussing the three leaflets throughout that particular day.
‘As soon as you step out of a mosque in the town of Al-Wa’r following Friday prayers, you will find someone handing out printed Islamic leaflets calling for the establishment of the (Islamic) caliphate state.
‘The first leaflet introduces Hizb al-Tahrir – which was banned throughout both Hafiz and Bashar Al-Assad’s rules – its political concepts are exclusively based on Islamic Sharia law, and, as it states on its leaflet, its goal is to “fully implement Islam with all its rules”.
‘The second leaflet, which is signed by the supporters of Hizb al-Tahrir entitled “Together To Establish the Orthodox Caliphate” explains the “merits” of the caliphate to support its argument.
‘It employs the method of addressing people’s hearts, not minds.
‘The Al-Nusrah Front’s leaflet played the caliphate chord in a way that differs from that of Hizb al-Tahrir.
‘According to its distributed leaflet, which starts with the phrase “Our good people”, it lists what it sees as the vices and shortcomings of the civil state, as well as the “risk of democracy and the ravages it causes to the people” in such a way as to turn them against it, and links the establishment of right only to the caliphate state.’
