On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces began forcibly dispersing the six-week-long sit-ins by supporters of ousted president Muhammad Mursi and of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) near Cairo's Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque and Al-Nahda Square. The move came after all local, regional, and international efforts to broker an agreement between representatives of the ousted regime and of the current regime had failed.
The issue of the dispersal of the sit-ins has been disputed in Egyptian society for several weeks. Many MB opponents, including columnist for the Egyptian Al-Ahram daily Ahmad Moussa, claimed that the central sit-ins, at these two sites, were being run like an independent entity separate from the state, and were stockpiling weapons, torturing activists seeking to leave, exploiting women and children, and inciting violence; therefore, he said, the sit-ins must be broken up.
MB supporters rejected these claims, insisting that the protests were strictly peaceful, and even called on the public to come to see for themselves. Dr. Hilmi Al-Qa'oud, columnist for the MB website, compared the current regime's decision to break up the sit-ins to Hitler's "final solution," and warned that doing so would only make the protests expand countrywide and fan the flames of the uprising against the current regime.
Dispersing the Al-Nahda Square sit-in[1]
Field hospital at Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque[2]
The following are translated excerpts from the columns, both published August 14, 2013, by Moussa and Al-Qa'oud:
'Al-Ahram' Columnist: The MB Terror Threat Must Be Repelled From The Centers Of The Sit-In
Ahmad Moussa wrote in his column in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram: "The crimes perpetrated by the leaders of the armed terror [i.e. the MB] at Raba'a Al-'Adawiyya and at Al-Nahda must end soon, [for] they have begun to constitute a threat to Egypt's national security and to the lives of the people who reside near these two armed [MB] nests. This [sort of thing] cannot be tolerated in any country that respects the most fundamental principles of law and human [norms] – [principles that are now] being violated by those who purport to be Muslims [i.e. the MB] and their supporters, the Khawarij[3] of this age.
"These people, who must be held accountable in a court of law, are committing crimes against innocent people. Anyone who disagrees with them or does not support their criminal anti-army and anti-police positions is tortured after being snatched off the street – and murdered in cold blood by means of barbaric torture. The places where these hostages are held witness shameful things: [the victims are] humiliated, electrocuted, clubbed with sharp implements, flogged, have their fingernails pulled out, and are dragged on the ground and hung by their feet. These crimes are committed before the eyes of, and within earshot of, those [in the square], who hear the victims' screams and groans as they are tortured inside Raba'a Mosque, which has become a slaughterhouse of death, beatings, and torture.
"The MB, which [operates] terrorist cells that attack and assassinate the people of this homeland and its courageous defenders in Sinai and elsewhere, want to subject the homeland and the people to the law of the jungle and the rule of terror. They tried to take over the area of Raba'a Al-'Adawiyya [Mosque] and to turn it into its emirate, in which they could rule as they willed. [They did this by] posting guards, erecting concrete and sandbag walls around the entrances [to the area], tasking their armed and trained militia with maintaining security, and forcibly taking over, under armed threat, the homes of the [local] residents. They took over the yards and doorsteps, and [arbitrarily] controlled the comings and goings of the peaceful residents...
"In light of these absurd crimes and deeds, perpetrated under the guise of religion, action must be taken to remove the threat of terror and its supporters in the two centers of the [MB] sit-in."
Columnist On MB Website: If The Protests Are Dispersed, The Raba'a Phenomenon Will Spread To Every Square In Egypt
Dr. Hilmi Al-Qa'oud, a columnist on the MB website, wrote: "The efforts of the American, European and Arab brokers have failed to reach a solution that will persuade the perpetrators of the [anti-Mursi] coup, whose hands are stained with blood, to restore constitutional life and to respect the Egyptian people's wish to choose its own rulers, its own MPs, and its own constitution.
"The perpetrators of the coup announced the beginning of the countdown to the forcible and bloody dispersion of the two sit-ins, at Raba'a Al-Adawiyya and Al-Nahda. The [current] presidency that [was behind] the coup officially announced the failure of the international and local mediation efforts, and placed the responsibility for 'possible repercussions' of the dispersal of the sit-ins, which it said 'are not [being conducted] peaceably,' on the MB.
"The perpetrators of the coup, with their bloodstained hands, were left with [no solution] but the one called, by Hitler's Nazi writings, the 'final solution' – meaning the extermination of all the non-Aryans against whom Hitler and his troops raged: Gypsies, Slavs, Poles, Bosnians, and Jews. The 'final solution' was a German plan, named by the Nazi Adolf Eichmann and aimed at solving Germany's problem, [namely, the need] to exterminate the races hated by Hitler and the Nazis during World War II. On January 20, 1942, the Nazi leaders met in Berlin to implement this plan, beginning with starving the victims and ending with murdering them...
"The commander of the bloody coup [Defense Minister Gen. Al-Sisi], who has already had the pleasure of killing [people] with live ammunition at the Republican Guard [compound] and at the podium [on Cairo's Al-Nassr Street],[4] can [now] indulge his demented lust [for blood] by killing and wounding thousands and transforming Raba'a Al-'Adawiyya Square into Beijing's Tiananmen Square. But he will never be able to rest easy, nor to control the homeland that he sold out cheaply, for one simple reason: [What is happening] at Raba'a Al-'Adawiyya and Al-Nahda will spread to dozens of [other] squares throughout Cairo and its [suburbs]. Every martyr whose funeral is held by his family in a village, a neighborhood, or a city will spark new flames of a resistance that will not stop. The murderers will never escape the hand of Allah or international or local law...
"Peaceful resistance is a legitimate right all over the world, and it is already proven that the sit-in protestors at Raba'a Al-'Adawiyya and Al-Nahda are neither armed nor violent – [and will remain so] even if the salaried employees of the coup's propaganda apparatus continue to reiterate the unbelievable lies... fed to them by the security and intelligence apparatuses, such as the claim that the protestors killed 11 Egyptians and dumped [the bodies] at Raba'a [Square].
"Muslim Egypt will kneel to none but Allah, and will not capitulate to the idiotic army. The murderers and their agents will not escape the hand of Allah."
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Yawm Al-Saba' (Egypt), August 14, 2013.
[2] Ikhwanonline.com, August 14, 2013.
[3] A group that broke off from 'Ali's camp during the Battle of Siffin in 657, and is considered the first internal oppositionist group in Islam.
[4] On July 9, 2013, dozens of MB activists were shot to death by the security apparatuses as they attempted to storm the Republican Guard compound where Mursi is being held; on July 27, 2013, dozens were killed at an MB rally in Cairo in clashes with police which began in front of the speakers' podium on Al-Nassr Street.