Statement For the People

In the Name of Allah, the Benificent, the Merciful
 
The Muslim Brothers were, are and will be preaching for good and seeking the interest, security and stability of their homeland; they do this for God’s sake, not expecting any reward or praise from others.
So, we were so hurt by the President’s statement, days ago, in which he said that we pose a danger to the security of Egypt because we follow a religious method; this proves that there are decision makers who are still not well-acquainted with our ideology; we called all people previously for hearing from us, not hearing about us, that we open our hearts minds for holding any dialogue, and stretch our hands to cooperate with all compatriots on every thing good for the country; but unfortunately, no one responded to us.
 
We sacrifice our souls, children and money for protecting the Egyptian security; on the level of ideology, we rejected the Takfiri ideology inside prisons although we were severely tortured; our late imam Al Hudaiby- May Allah have mercy on him- issued the book ” Preachers not Judges”, and we excluded from among us those who adopted this Takfiri ideology because we know that it is a prelude for violence that hurts the security and stability of Egypt; after we were released from prisons, we preached for the sound Islamic thought and we protected- thank God- hundreds of thousands of young men from slipping into the abyss of Takfir and violence and using weapons; we condemned all acts, forms and sources of terrorism; when the leaders of Al-Jama’a Al-Islamiya backtracked from their ideology, and issued books containing their intellectual reviews, what they did was only approaching our ideology and quoting our scholars, something we welcomed .
 
On the level of action, we-  and so was our late MB chairman Omar Al-Telemisani – may Allah have mercy on him- were a safety valve for ending sectarian strives at Al-Zawya Al-Hamra and others, and nonsectarian strives in many places; Al Nabawi Ismail, the ex-Interior Minister acknowledged this; in spite of the severe persecution that we faced now and before and we are still facing, but no one of us caused any harm to any body; what we do is just be patient and tolerant.
 
President Mubarak told a French journalist in 1994 that the Muslim Brotherhood is a group that adopts the peaceful action, run for syndicate and parliament elections and they aren’t related to violence; he declared just before the last parliamentary elections that the MB has the right to run as independents; when we fielded candidates, about three million voters voted for us, and – thank God – eighty eight MB candidates won seats, let alone those denied access to ballot boxes and candidates whose elections were rigged for other candidates; the performance of the Muslim Brotherhood MPs from 1984 until now proves that they are fully concerned with the national interests and the security and stability of the homeland and achieving prosperity and prosperity. Do all these achievements prove that we pose a danger to the security of Egypt ?!!!; do the Egyptians vote for those they think of as a source of danger to their security and the security of their homeland?!!!
 
As for the performance of Al-Azhar students which was used as pretext for escalations, detentions and hitting economic interests of individuals, workers and companies, it is a sole incident in a clear 3 decade history, specially if we put it fairly within its context and circumstances; however, we denounced it and those who did it apologized for doing so; we expected that this incident will be ignored, at least for the future of these young men, like what happened in another incident carried out by others who caused damages in people and properties.
 
As for attributing the danger to security to our following a religious method, this is very strange, because what we follow is the Islamic method stipulated in the second article of this constitution all previous Egyptian constitutions; the state’s religion is Islam, that seeks to achieve rightness, justice and equality and that respects human rights and dignity and respects public freedoms, and makes people the source of authorities, and considers manners a corner stone for all activities in life; this is because politics should be free of lying, cheating, deception, breaching pledges, breaching trust, rigging, making coups, tyranny, codifying injustice, persecuting people, jailing dissidents, making a coalition between power and wealth, dominating over legislation and justice; the economy should be based on honesty, transparency, professionalism, science, planning, non extravagance; sociology should be based on cooperation, solidarity, mercy, equality, equal opportunities, decreasing gaps among classes, fighting corruption and unemployment, and other values adopted by the Islamic method of reform which is concerned with reforming the soul and inner self along with reforming appearance; how come that this method poses a danger to the security of country?!!!
 
If the so called religious method means monopolizing truth and ruling according to a divine right and infallibility of rulers and monopolizing power, and discriminating among citizens according to creed, doctrine or religion, these are things which are rejected by Islam and accordingly rejected by us.
 
What actually leads to the escape of investors is tyranny, corruption and the emergency law under which dozens of thousands were arrested without any investigation, accusation or trial for periods up to more than ten years, and the exceptional courts, and the central security forces whose deployment makes foreigners feel that the country is in a state of war, and the continuous violations against human rights, dignity and violating freedoms and not respecting rulings of the judiciary, and the corruption which is wide-spread in all parts of the country; the corruption which is known for all and enlisted Egypt among lowest countries in the fields of development and transparency, respecting human rights and drawing investment.
 
Therefore, we demand all people including those in power and opposition to cooperate and close ranks to remove all the hurdles that hinder Egypt from assuming a high position which is suitable for its civilization, history and leadership; as for the Western threats with blockade and sanctions, it is incorrect that we abandon our principles and interests for this; we should increase our link to Allah, close ranks among ourselves, and unite the government with people, sacrifice ourselves for the nation’s interests, and conduct honorable competition for serving public interests, and seek ways of spiritual and material strength through science, work, production, professionalism and cooperation with those believing in the values of freedom, justice, peace and equality.
 
Finally, we acknowledge that Egypt is our life and soul, that its security is more important than our security, and that its sovereignty, prosperity and progress are our target; we will never pose a threat to it.
 
We reiterate that our hearts and our minds are open for conducting a dialogue whether with rulers or with opposition powers for the sake of Egyptian interests, and our hands are stretched to cooperate with every body without exception (And cooperate with one another for piety and righteousness and do not cooperate with one another regarding sin and aggression)
 
Mohamed Mahdi Akef
The Muslim Brotherhood Chairman