- DemocracyHuman RightsMilitary TribunalPrisoners of Conscience
- December 17, 2009
- 3 minutes read
Khairat is the man!
According to his page on Facebook, this November 14, is the third anniversary for Khairat Alshater’s detention. Khairat Alshater’s is the second deputy chairman for Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Alshater is one of the most influential Muslim Brotherhood leaders around the world. He was detained in 2006 and he was referred to a military tribunal by the order of the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in 2007.
Because he is a civilian; the military court wasn’t competent to rule in his case. But the military court continued judging Khairat Alshater and another 39 Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
In April 2008, the illegitimate court hearing sentenced Alshater to imprisonment for seven years, despite four previous pleads of innocence.
Many people believe that Khairat Alshater is the suitable man to lead the Brotherhood in this critical period of the movement’s history. He is talented in building bridges with other people and powers; he has founded one of the most successful projects in the Muslim Brotherhood’s media: namely Ikhwanweb.com; the official English website for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The site is considered the most influential and effective means that transfers the opinions of MB to the West and English readers.
After the 2005 legislative victory in the Parliamentary elections, Alshater wrote his famous article in The Guardian, titled “No need to be afraid of us”.
The last paragraph in the article which illustrates Alshater’s thoughts and opinions reads:
“The success of the Muslim Brotherhood should not frighten anybody: we respect the rights of all religious and political groups. So much damage has been inflicted on the country over the past century because of despotism and corruption that it would be impossible to embark on wider political reform and economic development without first repairing the damage to our basic institutions. Free and fair.”
On the other hand, for many members in the Brotherhood; Khairat Alshater is the solution to the Muslim Brotherhood’s current dilemma. He is a suitable representative for both reformists and conservatives in the group highly regarded by supporters of both ideals.
The Egyptian regime resorted to arresting and referring him to a military tribunal for the second time.
Khairat Alshater is the perfect candidate to lead the Brotherhood in this critical phase; I don’t want to adopt the conspiracy theory to understand the reasons of Alshater’s detention. But I’m pretty sure that the Egyptian regime doesn’t want to let Alshater be the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Khairat Alshater will reform the Brotherhood, and he will change the stereotyped image of the MB in the western mentality, and the Egyptian regime can’t accept that.
The Egyptian regime believes that they must convert the Muslim Brotherhood and political Islamists to a scapegoat in order to get the maximum support from the terrified West, which is ready to jump on democracy to prevent the Brotherhood from access to power in Egypt, in which Khairat is capable of attaining.