• December 23, 2006
  • 6 minutes read

The “Militia”, The State, And The Rule of Law

The “Militia”, The State, And The Rule of Law

Cairo center for studies of human rights hosted a heated seminar, on Wednesday evening, titled " The Militias …State and Rule of Law", which discussed what the media outlets called a "paramilitary" parade by a group of Muslim Brotherhood students in Al-Azhar, for which the authorities arrested about 130 students.
 
The speakers agreed on condemning the students behaviour, condemning "the dangerous indication" sent by their performance, and demanding releasing them.
 
The participants in the seminar were divided between those accusing and those defending the the Muslim Brotherhood; their attitudes differed between those blaming the regime and its tyrannical policy and those condemning the ideological edifice of the MB group, while questioning the extent of its belief in denouncing violence as a deed and a method.
 
Negad Al Boraie, the chairman of democracy development society, confirmed that" It is not just a matter of students performance, but there are real fears about the intentions of a certain political movement".
 
He said that the incident gave a negative impression about the development of the political life in Egypt, saying it required an apology from the MB chairman in person, not only the students.
 
"We want all political powers, including Islamic powers, to assume power peacefully and to step down from power peacefully as well", Al Boraie said, adding that he can’t accept that the ruling the country moves from a political tyranny to a religious tyranny, citing several incidents, the most prominent of which is that the MB chairman’s statements are not encouraging, and that the performance of MB parliamentarians concerning freedom of expression isn’t reassuring.

Fears

Hafez Abu Seada, the Secretary-General of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, considered that what happened is an MB direction and a message to the security body.
 
"Fears of adopting violence are based on real incidents due to the terrorist incidents that took place in the 1990s" Abu Seada added, denying that there is a double standard policy regarding criticizing violence, reminding of the attitude of " the writers and journalists who unanimously revolted when Noaman Gomaa broke into Wafd Party with the help of bullies", stressing that the state violence does not justify counter violence.
As for the ex-deputy manager of the State Security Police, Major General Fouad Allaam he said that dialogue is the best method for reaching a solution of all problems facing the society.
 
He said that the Muslim Brotherhood is present- but illegally- in the society. He accused it of maintaining the Secret Apparatus and of imposing themselves with the use of force and intellectual terrorism.
 
He saw that Al-Azhar University incidents were within this context, rejecting downplaying them, and he demanded the MB group to follow a correct public method (democracy) to reach its targets.

Exaggeration, Causing Panic

The Secretary-General of the MB parliamentary bloc, Mohamed Al Beltagi, objected to describing the sportive performance as "militias", demanding to put the incident in its natural context and not to exaggerate it, citing some quotes of a testimony wrote by the cameraman of "Al-Masry Al-Yom" that covered the incident event, as he said that it was " a sports section in a non-traditional form."
"We have been premeditatedly depicted as a scarecrow for frightening the Egyptian society that gave 3.5 millions votes to the MB candidates in the parliamentary elections and 150 thousand votes to the Free Union in the universities", Al Beltagi added, confirming that showing and depicting the Muslim Brotherhood as a scarecrow comes whenever MB activities increase and the popular response towards it increases as well.
 
He responded to the fears raised by some, saying:" The Muslim Brothehood renounces violence and renounces hinting at it, and we have a red line called "state of chaos", because we know very well who will benefit from it."
 
Also he condemned that the media outlets didn’t publish the statement in which the students apologized for their mistake and their offense to the image of the university with their performance..
 
Al Beltagi presented pictures of what he called slayings and killings that took place in Ain Shams University when a group of gunmen attacked the students of the Free Union, considering that the Muslim Brotherhood members are punished and persecuted, because the regime failed to beat them in the political race.
 
All unanimously agreed that the discussions of seminar should not affect the legal status of the detained students or to be used against them in the case, demanding merging the Muslim Brotherhood in the partisan political life, and holding an expanded dialogue among all national powers.

Amr Magdi Blog
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