Initiatives of reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood: Causes and results
Thursday 08/November/2018 - 02:34 PM
The issue of reconciliation between the Egyptian government and the Muslim
Brotherhood is especially important for the members of the group, which is
facing rejection by a large segment of the society as a result of the severe
violence it committed after the fall of its candidate Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.
That prompted them to try to get closer to the state and to return to the
political and social life, so we have every now and then initiatives calling
for reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, which are being met with the
extreme rejection of the Egyptian government and the Egyptian people.
These calls increased after the June 30 revolution, especially after the group
began to suffer many problems, which caused division within its ranks and
conflicts between the leaders at home and abroad. So, these calls are only a
Brotherhood maneuver to return to the political scene, which has not been
achieved because since the first moments of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
taking office as head of the public in June 2014, he has vowed not to allow the
Brotherhood to exist during his rule.
This prompts us to read the situation through three axes. The first will be
through reviewing the initiatives that some MB leaders called for and their
reasons while the second tackles reactions on these calls and the third axis
will provide an analytical reading of the causes and consequences of these
initiatives and their mechanisms.
First: Calls for launching reconciliation initiatives:
1. Internal Invitations:
When we recall the initiatives advocated by many different groups of society,
whether internal or external, over the course of more than five years, from
2013 to 2018, we have seen at least 15 initiatives calling for reconciliation
between the Muslim Brotherhood and the state. It began with the Salafist
preacher Mohamed Hassan in 2013 during the Rabaa al-Adawyia sit-in while the
latest of these initiative were the attempts of the former Muslim Brotherhood
member Kamal al-Halbawi in April 2018, which were widely rejected by the
Egyptian state, and a statement by the Muslim Brotherhood in August 2018. In
addition, there are many invitations from close people to the Muslim
Brotherhood and others from the state. The most important of these invitations
are the following:
The Salafist preacher Mohammed Hassan sought out in 2013, just days before the
end of the sit-in of Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda, to reconcile the group with
the state. Hassan returned on July 14, 2015 to repeat his initiative. "I
am still ready to lead reconciliation, including the achievement of punishment
for those who were killed without right, and the concession of both parties for
part of their rights in favor of Egypt.”
Prior to the end of 2013, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei called on the state to open
channels of dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood and the political Islam
movements supporting the ousted Morsi. ElBaradei called again in October 2015
to involve the group in Egypt's political future and the democratic transition
process as well as releasing Morsi and prisoners of the Muslim Brotherhood, in
return for the group giving up violence and return again to what he called
"the embrace of the people."
In October 2013, the Islamic thinker, Ahmed Kamal Abu al-Majd, presented an
initiative in which he said that he reached an agreement with the leaders of
the Muslim Brotherhood, including renouncing violence, stopping demonstrations
in the streets and fields, and abandoning the return of Morsi, in exchange for
the return of the group to political life.
The Political Science Professor at Cairo University, Hassan Nafaa, presented
two reconciliation initiatives, the first of which was in February 2014, which
was called the "Rescue Map" initiative and provides for the formation
of a committee of intellectuals headed by Mohamed Hassanein Heikal to calm the
atmosphere between the state and the Muslim Brotherhood. In August of the same
year, the National Dialogue included the dismissal of Hazem al-Beblawi's
government, the declaration of renunciation of violence by the state and the
Muslim Brotherhood and the establishment of a neutral fact-finding committee to
investigate all violence.
In February 2015, justice Tariq al-Bishri launched his reconciliation
initiative, in which he called on Saudi Arabia to take care of the dialogue
between the two sides. He noted that the Islamists in Egypt have popular
organizations that are permeated within society and dialogue between the state
and the Brotherhood is important to return the group to political life.
On June 19, 2015, the leader of the Strong Egypt Party, currently imprisoned on
charges of belonging to the group, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fattouh, launched a
reconciliation initiative with the group, which consisted of forming a
government of independent transitional competencies. Abul-Fattouh proposed
appointing a new prime minister to be an independent, impartial personality,
and then to delegate the President of the Republic in his powers to the Prime
Minister. Then, he called for the release of Morsi and the prisoners of the
Brotherhood, with the group entering into a national dialogue with the
authorities after repudiating all forms of violence.
He also called on the director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development
Studies, "Saad Eddin Ibrahim," at various times and over several
years; to conduct reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, including an
initiative presented in March 2016 and involved the release of all the leaders
of the Muslim Brotherhood, led by the bureau guide Badee.
He returned again in March 2017 to declare that the group was ready for
reconciliation. “The atmosphere is now ready for historic national
reconciliation and there are signs of a historic reconciliation in Egypt,” he
said.
In November 2016, Emad Abdul Ghafour, head of Al-Watan Party and former aide to
Morsi, called for a new reconciliation under the name of "national
reconciliation" urging the state and the Brotherhood to make some
concessions and retreats.
In April 2018, the media provided a call for reconciliation, highlighting the
need to integrate the Brotherhood's youth into society and reconcile with them.
It also carried out intellectual reviews of the elements of the group.
One of the most controversial initiatives was the initiative launched by the
dissident leader Kamal al-Halbawi on April 25, 2018, calling for the need to
seek comprehensive national reconciliation in Egypt through the formation of a
council of wise people, including Arab and international personalities like the
late Sudanese President Abdulrahman Sawar Al-Zahab, the Speaker of the Kuwaiti
National Assembly Marzouq Al-Ghanim, former Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz
Belkhadem, the former Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Amr Moussa
and the President of the National Council for Human Rights Mohammad Fayek, with
a view to ending the conflict between the state and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The latest initiative, which was released to the public, was a statement issued
by the group on the fifth anniversary of the dismantling of the Rabaa
al-Adawyia sit-in and the uprising on August 13, 2018. The initiative included
the holding of a new presidential election. The statement was entitled
"Come to a Common Word, One for One People ", and included 10 items,
claiming that its purpose is to remove the homeland from the dark tunnel.
The most prominent of these items are the celebration of the January 2011
revolution, the assertion that the group is a national faction, the highlight
of peaceful means of organizing change and preserving state institutions, and
the fact that the people are the sole source of legitimacy and rejection of
polarization.
The group announced that the best way out of this dark tunnel is the return of
"Morsi" to the rule of government at the head of a coalition
government agreed by the national forces for a limited and sufficient period.
During this period, the country would prepare free and fair elections
supervised by an independent judiciary, calling for a comprehensive national
community dialogue in a healthy atmosphere. That dialogue should allow the
achievement of the previous items, so that the national unity can be restored
and the move towards a single homeland for one people.
2. External Calls:
In January 2017, Rashid al-Ghanoushi, the head of the Al-Nahda movement, the Tunisian
arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, announced that he had presented an initiative
for reconciliation between the state and the Muslim Brotherhood. He asked Saudi
Arabia to mediate with Egypt in order to reconcile with the Muslim Brotherhood,
considering that this group is an ancient component of the Egyptian people. He
pointed this out during a meeting between Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of
Saudi Arabia, where he was asked to mediate to calm the atmosphere.
In July 2017, the head of the Sudanese Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi, announced
that he had proposed to Sisi to conclude a reconciliation with the Brotherhood
through the release of the Brotherhood's leaders by the Egyptian authorities,
in exchange for the Brotherhood conducting intellectual reviews within the
organization to compromise and change their ideas.
On November 30, 2016, the late Sudanese President Abdulrahman Sowar Al-Zahab
announced that Sudan could mediate between the Egyptian regime and the Muslim
Brotherhood to achieve what it called "national reconciliation".
In May 2017, when Hamas announced its secession from the group, the Palestinian
Hamas movement demanded that the Brotherhood's leadership at home and abroad
take steps to open the way for the possibility of reconciliation and the return
of the group in Egypt to the political scene.
The idea of reconciliation was promoted many times by the deputy leader of
the Muslim Brotherhood, Ibrahim Munir, the fugitive abroad and the spokesman of
the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. The most recent was in August 2018, when he
appeared through one of the Brotherhood websites to announce the details of an
initiative for reconciliation. The group followed the efforts of national
figures to reconcile with the state, and therefore does not reject any
initiative of any solutions or perceptions. On the contrary, the group is
completely open to any initiatives or visions provided they are fair and
restore rights.
This was not the first time that Mounir spoke about reconciliation. In April
2018, Mounir went out of the way again, after indirectly confirming that the
group had given up its hardline demands it had adopted during the past periods.
In an interview with the channel "Al-Jazeera”, he directly announced
acceptance of his group to enter into direct negotiations with the state, the
release of the prisoners of the Muslim Brotherhood, provided that it is with
officials and not mediators. In November 2016, Mounir came out to talk about
what they described as "wise people" and to draw a clear picture of
reconciliation between the Egyptian authorities and the group.
In July 2018, Mounir announced the group's acceptance of reconciliation with
the state. He called on several wise men in the Muslim world to intervene to
save the group.
After Mounir's latest release, a report was published in the British newspaper
Economist in August 2018. Commenting on this, he said that the group was
seeking reconciliation with the state, to save what could be saved, after the
group was in a very bad position, suffering from fragmentation and persecution
in every country that goes to it. It also faces internal division and conflict
among its leaders, threatening to break it down forever.
Second: Reactions to reconciliation initiatives
1. Egyptian rejection
The reactions of Egypt on the initiatives of the Muslim Brotherhood calling for
reconciliation with the current Egyptian regime have varied. There are
reactions from the Presidency of the Republic and from the Egyptian Government
represented by the Ministers, in addition to the reactions of the leaders of a
number of political parties in Egypt, as follows:
- The Egyptian Presidency and Government:
The first response from the Egyptian presidency to the reconciliation
initiatives is through the transitional president in Egypt, Adli Mansour (who
assumed the post of interim president after Morsi was deposed) in February
2014, who ruled out reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. "If you
are talking about reconciliation with the Brotherhood after the Egyptian people
regained their political consciousness, can any decision be taken without their
consent? I doubt.”
On November 4, 2015, during an interview with the BBC, he pointed out that the
Brotherhood was part of Egypt, and the Egyptian people alone are the ones to
decide whether to give them another role in the future of the country.
In an interview with the Associated Press, he confirmed in September 2015 that
the Brotherhood's crisis with the Egyptian people, not with the regime or the
government.
During the World Youth Forum in November 2016 in Sharm el-Sheikh, the president
commented on the possibility of reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood.
"I can not make a decision on my own, it is a state decision. I was the
one who gave them an opportunity on July 3. The statement was very balanced, I
am not asking anyone to change their ideas, but I ask them to practice their
ideas in a way that does not destroy the country.”
The most recent statement by al-Sisi on reconciliation initiatives was in
October 2018 during an interview published by the Kuwaiti daily Al-Shuhad.
"The Brotherhood will not have a role in the Egyptian scene during this
time. The people of Egypt will not accept their return because the
Brotherhood's thought is not viable. The group has led the chaos in many Arab
countries such as Yemen and Libya.”
Parliament
The deputy of the Foreign Relations Committee at the House of Deputies, Ghada
Ajami, said that any call for reconciliation with the group is totally
rejected. She asks: "How can we not take advantage of the lessons of the
former Egyptian presidents, especially as they tried to integrate the group
into the society peacefully? It joins an international organization that is
destructive and does not care about Egypt or the Egyptians.”
The deputy of the National Defense and Security Committee at the House of
Deputies, Yahya Kedwani said that talk about reconciliation with the Muslim
Brotherhood are nothing but allegations and dichotomy propagated by supporters
of the terrorist group through their suspicious initiatives carried out with
supporters of the group.
