http://www.middleeastmonitor.com
Wednesday, 25 September 2013

It existed under a ban and yet it survived and spread while its executioners went to the junkyards
By Shaaban Abdel Rahman

The Muslim Brotherhood, which was dissolved this week due to the issuance of a coup court injunction, is 85 years old (est. 1928). During this time it lived under a 51-year ban, thus only living 34 years without being banned. Moreover, even during its years of freedom, it was subjected to harassment, eavesdropping, spying, and the burning of its headquarters, just as it was during the ban. The best evidence of this is the attacks it was subjected to while one of its members served as president. The Muslim Brotherhood has lived its entire life under pressure, pursuit, and injustice. Its first Supreme Guide, Sheikh Hassan Al-Banna, died as a martyr at the hands of Ibrahim Abdel Hadi's government, backed by King Farouk, after throwing the group's members in jail as punishment for working to liberate Palestine, almost reaching the point of liberating it from the Zionists. Moreover, the seven other guides succeeding Al-Banna were all given life sentences under Abdul Nasser's reign and the military trials of Mubarak. The current Supreme Guide, Dr. Mohammed Badie, had his son killed, his tooth broken, was insulted and then thrown into jail with his predecessor Mahdi Akef, along with thousands of the group's leaders.

It is a long history of sacrifice and jihad for the sake of Allah's religion; if members of the Muslim Brotherhood sought for worldly or financial gains, then they would have agreed to the deals offered to them by the successive regimes, from Farouk to the current coup regime. But instead, they preferred prison and execution to compromising on their homeland, religion, and principles… They did not give up their patriotism, legitimacy, or faith.

Please tell me, would a group that has suffered for 85 years, lost dozens of martyrs at the hands of tyrants and thousands more to the bullets of the coup, had hundreds of thousands of its members, the best people of Egypt, imprisoned, suffering through the displacement of families, the destruction of homes, and the seizure of money only seek power and benefits? What kind of mind would believe that a person would give up his or her whole life in order to rule or achieve benefits? There certainly must be a bigger purpose, a higher cause: the liberation of Egypt from foreign control, and the liberation of the Egyptian people from brutal tyrants who rule with iron and fire… But the foolish do not realise this.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which has existed for most of its years banned, is present today in the majority of Egyptian villages, towns, and streets, and almost in every home. It is present in over 80 countries, according to the statements of its officials.It has survived behind bars, its members were hung on the gallows, their blood shed in the streets and squares, but it continues its path, with the help of God. It has come out of every challenge stronger, more united, and more widespread, while the brokers of colonialism and their executioners are sent to the junkyards of history.

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