Muslim Brotherhood not ready to cooperate or compromise
People in Egypt should realize that current rhetoric used by pro-Morsi supporters will lead them into a trap, because it was Muslim Brotherhood’s political inaction that once again brought the country into chaos, blogger Sara Labib told RT.
Starting pro-democracy grassroots movements in Egypt is the only
way for the country to escape violence, the blogger argues.
RT:What effect could the exclusion of the Muslim
Brotherhood from the new cabinet have?
Sara Labib: There are two sides to this. First of all there’s
the side that is more pro-liberal and more pro civil and secular
people getting in the government becoming all parts of the
cabinet. And there is a side within that group that wants to
exclude the Muslim Brotherhood from the process completely which
is of course very unreasonable because they do have support on
the ground.
RT:Mind you there is an element within Muslim
Brotherhood that wants to be excluded too…
SL: Exactly. On the other hand you have Muslim Brotherhood
doesn’t want to be part of the government because that would mean
acknowledging that their president has been deposed, and that he
is no longer president and the transitional government is
legitimate, which they don’t want to admit of course. Hence why
they are still on the streets. So on both sides there’s very
strong polarization. The way the Muslim Brotherhood acted when it
was in power also leads one to believe that they don’t want to
cooperate or compromise, so they are certainly not going to do
that now when they are not in power any more.
RT:One of the reasons why people rose against Morsi
was because he failed to form a coalition government with members
from the opposition included....is history starting to repeat
itself here already?
SL: Yeah exactly, especially at this moment in Egypt’s
life, when it is going bad economically, politically, the whole
climate of the country. When the president takes steps to
polarize society even more and to divide instead of trying to
compromise and trying to leave way for more moderate voices to
come on stage, he of course has led the country to come to this
stage, in which some people justify with him being deposed like
that.
They feel that there would be no future with the Muslim
Brotherhood or with Morsi. People are not even sure that next
elections, which would have been held, would have been fair. And
it is very understandable that people were worried about the
Morsi government and they were not even sure if they would have
been included themselves. It is a race for survival in a way.
RT:Are pro-Morsi protesters as united as they were 2
weeks ago?
SL: I think what happened now might actually make them
more united because this is their role; this is where they have
been for so long – victims or the underdogs. Their rhetoric now
is how they have been mistreated how they are misunderstood,
misrepresented in the media, etc. Many people sympathize with
that. Their own members buy that rhetoric and are still unable to
realize that the ones responsible for bringing us to this
breaking point are the Muslim Brotherhood themselves because they
were in power, they had a chance to take another course and they
didn’t. Unless they start to realize that, I’m sure they would
stay on the same course they are now.
RT:What reforms are needed for real democracy in the
country?
SL: What happened was very dangerous in terms of a
precedent, which shows that even if you mess up, even if you
choose the wrong government, the army will step in and rescue
you. I think the necessary steps for the Liberals and the
seculars who want to come to power would be to realize to work
harder on the ground. They would have to do grassroots efforts
and reach out to people and convince them of an alternative,
something positive, something they can believe in. They can’t
just attack the government, they have to present something
themselves. And that is only when they realize their
responsibility and unless that happens Egypt will keep going from
extreme to extreme and there will not be any progress.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.