[The following statement was issued by pro-Morsi demonstrators on 15 July 2013 and published on ikhwanweb. com.]
Coup commander Abdel Fattah al-Sisi betrayed the oath he took before the head of state–the supreme commander of the armed forces. He spilled the blood of innocent Egyptians, killing more than a hundred citizens and injuring more than a thousand, including women and children, supporters of democratic legitimacy, opponents of the bloody military coup. He then threatened peaceful protestors and restricted their freedoms. Then again faked justifications to defend his coup against electoral legitimacy.
These fake justifications included a claim that the President fought battles with the judiciary, the police, the media, public opinion and the army. This is an utter lie, because in fact, it was corrupt members of the judiciary, the media and the police, which the January 25 Revolution demanded be purged, were the ones who waged war against the President since the first moments.
It is absurd that al-Sisi included the army in this list, although it was President Morsi who appointed him Minister of Defense and provided him with all resources needed for the development of the armed forces.
Shamefully, al-Sisi pitted the armed forces against two-thirds of the people, in support of the remaining third – the leftist, liberals and Copts. Even more shamefully, al-Sisi murdered worshipers at dawn prayers in cold blood in front of the Republican Guard Officers’ Club.
Al-Sisi never offered condolences to the families of the martyrs and the injured. Instead, he arrogantly sought flimsy excuses to justify his heinous crime, seeking other commanders and officers’ support to escape the deserved isolation he increasingly feels.
Earlier, al-Sisi did reveal a distinct bias for some Egyptians against others. He criticized what he described as the siege of the Constitutional Court and Cairo’s Media Production City, but did not utter a single word about the repeated sieges of Itehadia Presidential Palace, Tahrir’s major government office buildings and Maspero TV Center building. He never said anything about the burning of the Courts of Cairo and Alexandria, the torching and total destruction of headquarters of political parties and even the home of President Morsi. al-Sisi also criticized what he saw as ‘forcing religion into politics’, a language used by liberals and leftists’ camp.
We ask commander al-Sisi:
- Why did you not talk to the army commanders and officers about the massacre of worshipers outside the Republican Guard compound? And why did you not apologize for that?
- Why did you not talk about the closings of satellite TV channels and the censoring of newspapers and other TV channels to force them to follow the ‘official’ line?
- Why did your speech make no mention of the great January 2011 Revolution – as if you wish to bury it completely?
- Why do you falsely claim that the army sided with the people on June 30, ignoring the masses of people who turned out in millions in support of the elected President and constitutional legitimacy?
- How can you pretend to call for containment of opponents, while your men persistently hunt and arrest Islamists and political symbols representing all currents and orientations?
- How can you pounce on all the January 25 benefits and gains January 25 awarded to the Egyptian people, just as those began to bear fruit both domestically and internationally? You pushed these brave and patient people to square one yet again, wasting two years of their hard work and struggle with which they wrote a new history for Egypt and the region!
- How could you and your cronies and collaborators turn a blind eye to the great changes in the region around us and the duties imposed on the brave Egyptian army accordingly? You pushed this country’s army a million miles back, directing its military machine towards unarmed Egyptians, tearing up the national fabric of the homeland for the benefit of enemies of the homeland who are plotting to involve the Egyptian army in this treasonous quagmire.
The consequences of injustice are severe, and lies are invariably exposed, shamefully.
"Those who do wrong will soon come to know where they will end up." (Quran 26:227)