Egypt’s current Pharaoh, Dictator sisi marks his 5th year in power

The 3rd of July marks a grim day in the chapter of Egyptian History. Time and time again Egypt has seen parallels of Firawn and Mūsā (ʿalayhi al-Salām). It manages to conjure up some of the most wicked and yet also some of the most righteous of every age since the rise of Islām after the four rightly guided Caliphs (raḍiy Allāhu ʿanhum).

Egypt has been a key player for oppressors and imperial powers in the region. Exchanging hands between Soviets and Americans, the dictatorial regimes, under whom languished the Egyptian people, seem always to have one common enemy: Islamic Movements which, despite political affiliations, seek to keep the light of religion from being extinguished. Under the tutelage of oppressive military men, Islamic groups who found unity in loving the religion wished to educate the Egyptian people, relieve the corruption and engage in charity. Even these noble aims were met with persecution, arrests and executions throughout modern Egyptian History.[1]

For the first time since the Arab Spring and the overthrow of Mubarak, Egyptians democratically elected a Parliament and a President. This was a bane for the parallel police and military state which ran much of the economy usurping people’s properties and rights. [2] They had a disdain for the message of the winning party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), with their anti-Zionist, anti-Corruption and Islamic policies and rhetoric. They did not want to bow to the forces of dictatorial secular nationalism which had dominated Egypt.

For the brief year Hafiz Dr Mohammed Morsi (the freely elected President of Egypt) was in power along with his party, the FJP, opposition groups in the region plotted and planned and, following his eventual overthrow, applauded. [3] From the Military in Egypt to the Baathists in Syria, from Zionists in Israel to Emiratis in Dubai; those in power were joyous at evading minimal taxation and at maintaining a secure grip over Egypt. [4]

However, it was not enough that the Muslim Brotherhood retracted from the political scene let alone contest their unjust eviction from power. Despite the Brotherhood’s peaceful tactics they were met with brute force. Following the coup, on the 14th of August in a period of 24 hours Human Rights Watch notes that the Egyptian Military attacked peaceful protestors at the Raba’a al-Adawiya Square “killing at least 817 and likely more than 1,000.” [5] The number is likely to be even higher as many bodies were reportedly disposed of by military and police units and many were unidentifiable as a result of incendiary grenades utilised by the military.

The 14th August Massacre: Remembering Rabaa

The military regime that has succeeded the Islamic reign of the Muslim Brotherhood has brought in sky-high corruption according to “Transparency International”; [6] since 2014 tens of thousands of military trials of political prisoners;[7] thousands of forced disappearances;[8]praise from Trump;[9]sky-rocketing state executions mainly for those denied a free trial,[10] and the greatest relations between Egypt and Israel since the founding of the Zionist State. [11] Dictator Sisi (the leader of the coup against Dr Morsi) has made attempts to legitimise his regime through successive rigged elections and the arrests of notable Ulama and political activists under the pretence of “fighting extremism” which helps his justification of having at minimum 60,000 political prisoners.[12] [13][14]

As we remember this day as Muslims and as freedom-loving people all over the world, let us convert this great distress and despair into action. Let us pressure this regime and all its allies to give up their wrongful ways. Show solidarity through activism and Da’wah to our brothers behind bars and work with our brothers in Egypt so that they may revive their honour, liberty and justice under the protection of Islām. And with this we should be hopeful and attentive remembering the words of Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā):

“…And these days [of varying conditions] We alternate among the people so that Allah may make evident those who believe and [may] take to Himself from among you martyrs – and Allah does not like the wrongdoers -” [15]

“And We wanted to confer favor upon those who were oppressed in the land and make them leaders and make them inheritors” [16]

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Source: www.islam21c.com

Notes:

[1] Return of the Pharaoh by Zainab al Ghazali

[2] http://ti-defence.org/wp- a content/uploads/2018/03/The_Officers_Republic_TIDS_March18.pdf

 [3] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/07/201373223029610370.html

[4] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-sisi-business/sisi-walks-fine-line-between-egypts-tycoons-and-generals-idUSKCN0SA1FZ20151016

[5] https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/08/12/all-according-plan/raba-massacre-and-mass-killings-protesters-egypt

[6]https://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/publication/lost_billions_recovering_public_money_in_egypt_libya_tunisia_and_yemen

[7] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/Egypt

[8] https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/03/egypt-notorious-police-brutality-record-160322143521378.html

[9] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-election-trump/trump-congratulates-egypts-sisi-in-call-affirms-strategic-partnership-idUSKCN1H91NG

[10] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-executions/u-n-experts-call-for-egypt-to-halt-executions-idUSKBN1FF1O3

[11] https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/11/egypt-israel-relations-highest-level-history-161107083926863.html

[12] http://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/blog/egypts-rigged-presidential-elections

[13] https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160906-egypt-built-13-new-prisons-to-house-60000-political-prisoners/

[14] https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/09/28/we-are-tombs/abuses-egypts-scorpion-prison

[15] The Noble Quran 3:140

[16] The Noble Quran 28:5

Shaykh Qaradawi to his imprisoned daughter: A year has passed and I haven’t forgotten you

Egyptian born and Qatar-based Shaykh, Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradawi who is the Chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars wrote a letter to his daughter Ola, who has spent an entire year imprisoned in solitary confinement in Egypt. In his letter he protested the injustice that she has been suffering, and how his heart burns at her being subjected to a “deliberately slow execution”.

Al-Qaradawi said: “For an entire year in solitary confinement, in one of the world’s worst prisons, my daughter Ola al-Qaradawi has been subjected to terrible treatment in her tragic imprisonment. This unceasing abuse and humiliation is a deprivation of her most basic rights.”

He continued in his letter:

“A year has passed and we still wait for the consciousness of the people to move, for the asleep to wake up, and for the imprisoned to become free, and the dead hearts to regain their life.”

He added: “A year ago she was taken away from her home, her children, her grandchildren, her father, and from her brothers and sisters, to be put in solitary confinement that strips the individual of any rights and stops them from doing anything. Why? Simply because she is the daughter of al-Qaradawi, and she has Qatari citizenship. There’s no doubt that they (the Egyptian state) subjected a weak individual to this punishment to get back at Qatar and al-Qaradawi”.

The authorities arrested Ola al-Qaradawi and her husband Hossam Khalaf in early July 2017. She has since been held in solitary confinement in al-Qanaater Women’s Prison. Human rights organisation, Amnesty International has already concluded that the way the Egyptian state has dealt with her case amounts to torture by international standards.

Last Tuesday Ola began a hunger strike to “stop her torture, which amounts to a slow execution in her tragic imprisonment” according to her lawyer after the Giza Criminal Court decided to extend her imprisonment for 45 days.

Al-Qaradawi addressed his daughter saying:

“Oh my daughter I have not forgotten what you look like, and I still remember you in my mind, and I ask Allah in my supplications, prayers, and in my seclusion that He saves you from these oppressors, and every father feels the pain of his heart burning and making his eyes overflow whenever his daughter suffers an injustice or transgression”.

He went on to say: “This is how an innocent person in Egypt is thrown into prison, and this is how they are consigned to their oppression” adding “If I thought that putting in an appeal to them (the Egyptian authorities) would have worked, I would have done so, but they are completely heartless with rotten organs. Allah has removed mercy from their hearts, and their morals from their behaviours, while all of this is the case, I resort only to Allah who has lordship over the heavens and the earth, and sufficient is Allah as a guardian.”

Al-Qaradawi pleaded at the end of his letter:

“Every free person in this world should do what they are able to do save you and the tens of thousands of other unjustly imprisoned individuals from the abuse and oppression. So, to Allah is my complaint, and there is no power or ability to do anything except with Allah the Majestic, and I place you and your husband in the trust of Allah in who trust is never misplaced.”

Source: www.islam21c.com

Notes:

[1] http://www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2018/7/2/القرضاوي-لابنته-السجينة-عام-مضى-ولم-تفارقني-صورتك

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