- EGYPTMB Statements
- January 18, 2013
- 5 minutes read
Muslim Brotherhood Statement on Train Accidents, Falling Buildings and Killing of Policemen
Yet more fatal accidents rend our hearts, deepen our sorrows and compel us to join hands and cooperate in order to stop this series of calamities. Had these incidents been a result of natural disasters, we would have faced them with great patience. But they are the result of corruption and criminal negligence that make us all angry and call for decisive action.
There is no doubt that the previous regime left all the country’s facilities in a pitiful condition, as tyrants and cronies were preoccupied with looting the country, plundering its wealth and corrupting consciences, which led to an overwhelming inability to innovate or develop in all facilities.
The most serious outcome of such negligence was witnessed in the railway system and the failure to provide the means of safety and security in requires. Moreover, the absence of conscience in a number of workers led to further neglect of maintenance and failure to properly monitor crossings, which led to train accidents that killed a lot of people, repeatedly, taking the lives of a large number of our army recruits and our children, and injuring many more, in repeated tragic accidents.
Neglecting local councils, persecuting unions and imprisoning union chiefs so they would not do their vital national duties, led to unscrupulous contractors building high-rise blocks of flats without proper licenses, ignoring quality controls and necessary supervision by specialized engineers. This lead to the problem of residential buildings collapsing and killing many people, as we have just witnessed in Alexandria.
All these tragedies show that the absence of values, principles and piety lead to the destruction of society at large. Hence, we must work to revive consciences with religious and moral education.
Special technical and scientific committees must look for causes of accidents. If some of those were caused by deliberate acts of sabotage or by negligence, justice must take its course and exact appropriate deterrent punishment for each offense, without delay.
Furthermore, technical and scientific committee engineers must inspect all buildings erected without appropriate licenses or with no proper supervision, and take the necessary action against offenders, in order to avoid repeats of such unfortunate incidents. Alternative housing should be provided, as a temporary measure, so occupants of unlicensed buildings should not be harmed. Authorities must also punish all those who do not respect the law and all negligent staff who fail to apply the law.
Despite the depth of grief we feel for the loss of dear brothers and sisters and children, in accidents or killings of soldiers and police officers performing their national duties, we have to stand up and fight these crimes committed by ruthless criminals and thugs who must receive maximum punishment until people feel safe and secure, and the police continue to perform their national role unhindered, and Egypt becomes a safe country, free from thuggery, vandalism and crime.
Added to our grief is a sense of bitterness that a group of journalists and politicians seem delighted in misfortunes of the people and the homeland. They use these events in a clearly political manner that has nothing to do with humanity, national duty or religious principles, all of which condemn their behavior as loathsome and reprehensible.
Finally, we pray to God to receive the victims with His vast mercy, grant their families patience and solace, grace the wounded with speedy recovery, guide us all to the sublime moral principles of Islam, and protect the land and the people of Egypt our homeland, from harm.
The Muslim Brotherhood
Cairo – January 17, 2013