Muslim Brotherhood Statement on Events of Friday, November 23

Translation of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Statement regarding the President’s Constitutional Declaration Thursday and the events that followed on Friday.

Sunday, November 25,2012 13:21

IkhwanWeb

Our homeland, Egypt, is passing through a difficult time and serious events. The country’s legitimate elected authorities, represented in its President and the Constituent Assembly (CA), seek to complete the constitutional institutions by writing the new national charter to fill the constitutional vacuum that prevailed since the fall of the former regime. There will be a referendum on the constitution, and then new parliamentary elections, which should lead to order and stability, achieve security and protect the revolution and its gains. Together, we will push the wheel of production, bringing investment, for economic prosperity and social justice. Meanwhile, many parties, forces and groups seek to prevent all this from happening, by demanding dissolution of the CA and preventing the completion of the new Constitution. They therefore seek to prevent parliamentary elections and deprive the homeland and the people of the legislative and regulatory authority, so the country remains in a vacuum, in a state of chaos as a prelude to toppling the elected regime and grabbing power. Many popular personalities demanded revolutionary action to protect the country, rebuild institutions and achieve stability. The president responded to these revolutionary national demands Thursday with the Constitutional Declaration which seeks to achieve a number of those revolutionary goals, such as retrials for those accused of killing revolutionaries, honoring and caring for those injured during the revolution, and sacking the Public Prosecutor who was appointed by the ousted president. Moreover, the Constitutional Declaration protects the CA and the elected Shura Council and makes immune the president's Decrees for a period not exceeding two months. The vast majority of the Egyptian people welcomed these Decrees, and showed strong support for them as they came out in several mass demonstrations to declare support. This was also reflected in and confirmed by several independent opinion polls conducted by various print and broadcast media outlets. Certain political leaders condemned the Declaration, together with their supporters who did not realize the seriousness of the situation for the Egyptian people’s revolution, having received a - deliberately or inadvertently - distorted image of that Declaration. Thus they went out in counter-demonstrations chanting insults and obscenities for slogans. Joining them were groups of thugs who went on the rampage, destroying and burning the headquarters of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in Alexandria and in other cities. Others attacked police officers with Molotov bombs and stones, setting public and private institutions on fire. Then we heard irresponsible calls for escalation, sabotage and strike actions to disable state facilities. All this is certainly neither wise nor patriotic. In fact, it ignores the higher interests of the country, the popular will and the majority that represents the principles of democracy, which all parties claim to respect. Despite material and moral harm, we still call on everyone to show a spirit of responsibility and to work with citizens to gain their trust. We call for honest political rivalry to achieve the interests of the country in the light of democracy and justice. The majority of Egyptians, including the Muslim Brotherhood, strongly support the President’s Decrees, seek to build constitutional institutions and achieve the demands of the people and the revolution. We therefore call upon all national, revolutionary, Muslim and youth groups and movements to join protest marches in liberty squares across Egypt’s provinces, after Sunset prayers on Sunday to reaffirm their support for these Decrees. Furthermore, we invite them all for a million-man march and demonstration in Abdeen Square on Tuesday for the same goal. May God protect Egypt from all evil, guide its people to good fortunes, and remove all crises and distress. The Muslim Brotherhood Cairo - November 24, 2012