Munir writes to UK commons in response to “false allegations” raised by Mufti Allam
In response to the false allegations presented by Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam to the House of commons of the United Kingdom, His Excellency Ibrahim Munir wrote a letter to representative of the house in defense of the “Muslim brotherhood”
His letter reads as follows:
To The Rt Hon Amanda Milling MP,
Sir / Madam ,
We are writing today in regard to the presentation made yesterday on 17th May 2022 by Egypt’s Mufti Shawqi Allam to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Egypt.
The presentation was based on shocking falsehoods regarding the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood is fully committed to peacefulness, democracy and it unequivocally rejects any form of violent extremism.
It is the military and security forces who have extensively used violence, for example, when they massacred peaceful protesters following the coup of 2013 against a democratically elected government (HRW Report Egypt: Rab’a Killings Likely Crimes against Humanity. https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/12/egypt-raba-killings-likely-crimes-against-humanity), and continue to use violence against civilians today.
The discourse of the Sisi regime in describing its opposition relies on well worn hate speech often used by other authoritarian regimes. It negates the fact the Muslim Brotherhood have contributed to civil society on many levels for decades and that they abided by the democratic process whether through fielding parliamentary candidates or in the first free and fair elections in Egypt’s history in 2012.
The Sisi regime , like other authoritarian systems, needs a bogeyman and it has chosen the Muslim Brotherhood. It incessantly promotes the narrative of scaremongering through its state controlled media and thus encourages and promotes societal fissures within Egyptian society to justify the persecution of the group and execution of its members.
It further tries to legitimise violence against them by using religious terminology, often presenting the ‘war’ on the Muslim Brotherhood as a war on apostasy. That is why religious figures loyal to the government such as Mufti Allam publicly liken them to the 7th century apostate group the Khawarij. In fact the Muslim Brotherhood represent mainstream moderate Islam and promote moderation and oppose extremist ideology.
I am sure you are aware that this is not the first attempt to effect a ban on the Muslim Brotherhood. The previous attempt led to a Review called for by PM Cameron and a subsequent Parliamentary review which exonerated the Muslim Brotherhood of such false claims as promoted by the report distributed by Mufti Allam and ruled that they are a peaceful political and social organisation.
Mufti Allam came to Parliament to present the case of a regime that has been condemned by every major Human Rights organisation and the United Nations. The UK Government has designated Egypt a Human Rights Priority country.
An estimated 60,000 dissidents languish in inhumane conditions in prisons (Muslim Brotherhood, liberals, leftists and people of conscience); torture, rape and extrajudicial killings are standard tools used by this oppressive military and security regime. Hundreds of cases have been well documented by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International (some relating to the violence after the coup that might be considered war crimes) that they are in effect by now general knowledge.
Like all strongman dictators, Sisi, seeks a twin goal of changing the narrative of history and of brutally eradicating all political opposition. That this country maintains its long tradition of free speech and allows it to flourish threatens him because some of the voices against his regime, no matter how far, might be heard in his Republic of Fear.
The presentation that Mufti Allam made should be summarily dismissed, among others, for the following reasons:
He himself signed off on 106 executions following sham political trials, acknowledged internationally to have been neither fair nor subject to due process, thus placing Egypt third on the list of countries world-wide with the most executions.
The widespread evidence presented by human rights organisations and the UN that the Egyptian regime violates the most basic of human rights including the right to life is incontrovertible.
A previous Parliamentary inquiry into the Muslim Brotherhood found such accusations as levelled by Mufti Allam to have been false; and perhaps most pertinently, because recent events in the Ukraine have highlighted the enormous danger in assuaging and turning a blind eye to the violations of strong man dictators.
Yours sincerely,
Ibrahim Monir
Acting General Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood