The military coup’s failure in running the country has been ascertained, and change is the solution

Every year, the third of July brings to our memory the military coup against the popular will in 2013. This bloody coup overthrew the first free democratic experience in Egypt, and abused Egypt's bright face, only two and a half years after the outbreak of the inspiring January revolution. Today, we remember the coup after eleven years of failure to run the state or achieve the people’s hopes; with the ruling regime having exhausted all opportunities to survive. 

In fact, the military coup was only an episode of the civil-military struggle for power, which started on the first day of the January Revolution, when the people regained their freedom and sovereignty, and sought to establish their civil state based on the January Revolution values, in the face of attempts to impose the army’s guardianship on the people via the so-called ‘supra-constitutional principles’, through dissolution of the elected parliament, raising problems, putting up obstacles, and creating crises to undermine the first civilian government in Egypt.

Thus, the scene created on the night of 30 June 2013 was only a fleeting snapshot for which the groundwork had been laid by black propaganda, to create a pretext for a coup against the true will of the people and the removal of the democratically elected civilian president, regardless of his political affiliation. The coup demonstrated its complete hostility to everything related to the values ​​of ‘Bread, Freedom, and Human Dignity’, instilled by the spirit of the January Revolution in the souls of Egyptians. Therefore, the coup was a crime against Egypt and its people, rather than a crime against the person of the elected president, his ministers, and his supporters; and this is the naked truth.

The autocratic rule’s failure to achieve its promises to the people has been ascertained over the course of eleven years; rather, it reneged on them and denied them all, as it compromised Egypt’s sovereignty over its lands, ports, gas, and water. Citizens have also been crushed by the high prices, diseases, unemployment, and the expansion of poverty at the hands of the autocratic regime, which also led to the weakening of the private sector and subversion of the public sector, by halting production and disrupting factories and companies, with the aim of selling them at the lowest prices.

Egypt's debts have doubled at the hands of this regime, mortgaging the future of future generations, with respect to repayment. Moral decadence and social disintegration have also increased due to the war waged against identity and religion. The phenomena of suicide, divorce, immigration, and organized crime have also prevailed. Egypt will never see goodness at the hands of a regime that has exhausted all opportunities and met all conditions for departure after becoming a burden on the state and its people.

Hence, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) emphasizes several points related to the parties to the Egyptian scene: the people, the army, and the national forces, as follows:

First: The army is the nation's shield against external enemies; and the civil rule, peaceful transfer of power and competition for it based on the constitution and the law, as well as people’s free choice are the guarantees of a stable civil state. Meanwhile the security stick and military force are not tools of politics and the transfer of power.

Second: The Egyptian citizen has constitutional and legitimate rights over the government to provide security, bread, freedom, health and education; and it is not permissible to fail to perform them, within the framework of fair distribution of the country’s political and economic resources.

Third: The Muslim Brotherhood is part of the fabric of the Egyptian people, existing in all the society’s sectors and categories, adopting the people’s concerns and seeking to satisfy their needs. MB has a history of community giving and made major sacrifices in defence of the people, their will, and their freedom. It will continue to do this along with all those concerned with Egypt and Egyptians, without paying any attention to procedures of repression and exclusion.

Fourth: All political forces and various community forces and groups are concerned with working to save Egypt within a framework of national cohesion, under the slogan “Egypt is for all Egyptians” without exclusion or discrimination – with the Brotherhood reaffirming once again that it will not engage in a power struggle.

Fifth: The need for change has become more essential today than ever before, and the first demands of change are to open the public political sphere, hold free elections on all levels of executive and legislative positions, release political prisoners, and abolish all laws restricting freedoms. May Allah protect Egypt and its people and restore its glory and dignity.

MB Official Spokesperson

Osama Suleiman

(Tuesday 27 Dhu al-Hijjah 1445 AH, 3 July 2024 AD)