Muslim Brotherhood Statement on Events of the First Anniversary of the January 2011 Revolution

Muslim Brotherhood Statement on Events of the First Anniversary of the January 2011 Revolution

 The first anniversary of the great Egyptian people’s Revolution witnessed a country living through a precarious transitional period. Some achievements have been made, such as: ousting of the head of the former regime and its main figures and bringing them to trial, dissolving the People’s Assembly (PA), the Shura Council and the fraudulent local councils, dissolving the National Party and the State Security Investigations Service apparatus, holding free and fair elections for the new PA as well as elections for a number of trade unions and universities, establishing a road map to transfer power to civilians, and clearing parts of the Ministry of the Interior of the former president’s cronies. Some goals were not achieved as yet; and a number of unfortunate happenings befell the homeland, such as: lack of security, the spread of crime, prolongation of the transition period and its consequences of stopping the wheel of production in many factories, repeated bloody clashes adding to the numbers of the martyrs and the injured, delaying the parliamentary elections, pushing back the date of power handover, failure to purge the media and the judiciary, failure to take practical action in the field of social justice, failure to recover Egypt’s looted and smuggled money, and the protracted trials of criminals and corrupt figures.

 

The MB decided to commemorate the achievements, to declare commitment to fulfilling unmet demands, and to seek to expedite the handover of power to civilians – with major events in Tahrir Square.



It has always been the Muslim Brotherhood’s policy, in all their events, to adhere to the highest moral and ethical principles, to peaceful work, action and behavior, and to respect the rights of others – their events and opinions. The first two days (Wednesday and Thursday) passed in a peaceful civilized spirit. On Friday, however, groups of young people began to attack MB members, throwing stones, bottles and other projectiles at them, and attempted to wreck the Brotherhood’s stage in Tahrir, shouting abusive slogans and false accusations. Nevertheless, Brotherhood youths faced these aggressive, unethical attacks in a civilized manner and defended themselves and their stage. As a result, some Brotherhood young people were injured, although they were quite cable of responding in the same way or even stronger, they decided not to spoil the purity of the honorable event.


Those groups claim that they are ‘the revolutionaries’, and that all others have abandoned the revolution. They should know that the Muslim Brotherhood, its youths and noble patriotic members are the ones who paved the way for the Revolution, over decades of sacrificing their lives, their demonstrations against the emergency laws, against military trials, against tampering with the Constitution, and against ‘presidential inheritance’ and extensions, not to mention their strife for independence of the judiciary. They sacrificed thousands of their men, young and old in prisons, to pay the price for these demonstrations and protests. They took part in the revolution of January 25, from the very first day, and defended it for eighteen days, especially during the ‘Camel Battle’ and beyond, with scores of their men – their youths, killed, martyrs and hundreds wounded.


Everyone should know that the revolution, demonstrations and protests are not an end in themselves, but are ways to effect radical, categorical change in the system. Then, we must move the homeland from the state of Revolution to that of stability, and from revolutionary legitimacy to popular and constitutional legitimacy. As yet, we have not completed the building up of constitutional institutions of democracy. Only the People’s Assembly has been elected. We are still on the march. In a few days, we have the Shura Council elections. So, we believe that the constitutional legitimacy has begun shaping up. And so, we call upon the people to remain vigilant in order to complete these institutions of constitutional legitimacy, and in order to maintain this peaceful revolutionary legitimacy until this goal is achieved.


Furthermore, we would like to remind everyone also that it was the MB who insisted, since the beginning of the revolution, that the transitional period must not last any more than six months, even for one day. That is exactly what the Brotherhood’s Chairman told the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in the only time he met them. Evidently, those who are calling for SCAF to hand over power right now are the same people who were begging SCAF to remain at the helm for a full year, with some of them even asking them to stay for three whole years, claiming that they were not ready for the parliamentary elections.


Most of the media, which began its campaign against the Brotherhood very early, indeed, still incite and provoke adversaries against the MB, which we fear may lead to a repeat of the events of Mohamed Mahmoud Street and the Cabinet , with their disastrous results. So, we call upon them to fear God and save themselves, their homeland, their people and their revolution, in order for it to remain peaceful, refined and civilized.


Despite all this, we will continue – God willing – to defend this our homeland and serve our people, who gave us their trust in spite of the vicious and brutal campaigns of slander and hatred waged by opponents and the media. We will continue to endeavour selflessly, proud of our identity and our sublime principles, focusing on the noble and honorable tasks and objectives, overlooking petty acts and trivialities.