• March 16, 2006
  • 4 minutes read

MB: Rejection of Violence is Strategic and Fixed Principle

MB: Rejection of Violence is Strategic and Fixed Principle

The incidents of the Military Technical College, the first attempt of coup arranged by an Islamic organization, come to surface after 32 years. Recently, some newspapers circulated reports about what they termed ’the connection between the Muslim Brotherhood and the organization of the Technical College aimed to topple late president Anour el-Sadat.
 
MB has no Connection to the Organization
’I do not know why this issue is brought up now. It has been considered by judiciary since 1970s and none of the Muslim Brotherhood has been convicted. In this time, a relationship between the Brotherhood and the organization has been sought to be proved however judiciary decided no connection’ said Mr. Gomaa Amen, a member of the Brotherhood’s Supreme Council whose name was mentioned in statements of the organization’s leaders.
 
’The revival of this issue now and attempts to link Brotherhood to it comes under the manufactured campaign aims to tarnish the image of the Brotherhood in the aftermath of its major success in the parliamentary polls. Efforts to link the Brotherhood with the organization are in vain since this issue has died,’ said Essam el-Arian, a prominent leader of the Brotherhood.
 
Does Violence Form an Ideology of Reform for the MB?
 
The attempt of associating the Brotherhood with the organization urgently aroused this question. To find facts, we sought leaders of the Brotherhood to answer this question.
 
The Muslim Brotherhood’s deputy leader Mohamed Habib asserted that ’the Brotherhood adopts the peaceful methodology for reform that can be achieved through legitimate channels. We are against the ideology of military coups and revolutions for they lead to chaos and crises. If we approve force as a means of change, we authorize its possessors to use it to come to power.  Accordingly, societies become chaotic much similar to guerillas rather than civil communities . We admitted our approval of democracy, peaceful transition of power, political pluralism, separation of powers, and that the public is the source of power. We re-stress that our vision of the state is civil not religious.
 
Commenting on the Brotherhood’s founder Hassan El-Banna’s words ’to use power and weapon’, Habib said:’ we should put these words into its historical context. They have been said during the British occupation of Egypt therefore they meant the use of force to fight occupation troops; legal right provided by international norms and conventions. In April 1994, we have released an official document which I have drafted that voiced our renunciation of violence and force in all its forms except in resisting occupation.’
 
Replying on allegations that the Brotherhood adopts this stance for tactic reasons, Habib affirmed that the group’s stances are governed by Islamic law not by political opportunism. Our rejection of violence comes form a firmly fixed belief that the peaceful methodology for reform is the best and the most successful one.
 
On his part, Mr. Gomaa pointed out that el-Banna explained the group’s outlook of violence, in his messages. If the Brotherhood were apt to use force, it has been responded violently to those who have thrown its members behind bars for long years. On contrary, we followed the saying of el-Banah ’be like tree, when it is thrown with stones, it gives its ripest fruits.’ During our detention in the term of late president Nasser, we issued a book entitled ’Preachers not Judges’ when ideology of violence and judging people to be disbelievers spread. Accordingly, this book is considered the most well-known document that covers the stance of the Islamic Law regard system of rule, judging people to be disbelievers, and use of violence against regimes. I participated in composing the book and I still have the draft of some of its parts.’
 
’Since its foundation, the group’s ideology has been clear and fixed in respect of violence. In fact, the violent incidents with which the group has been charged have been accidental and individual. Such cases have been condemned by el-Banah when he made his famous remark ’they are neither brothers nor Muslims.’ Moreover, the history records that the group has not been convicted in any violent instances since 30 years despite detentions and torture target its activists,’ said Essam Al-Erian.