Is Emergency the Fait Accompli of the Egyptian People?

Date: 26 April 2021 - 21:40

News ID: ۸۹۶۳۵

By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

It is now 42 years since Iran became a truly independent country and the Iranian people were blessed with freedom, civil liberties, and all birthrights as per the popularly-voted constitution, but there is another culturally-rich Islamic land in our neighbourhood whose independence lasted only a single year and whose proud Muslim people seem to be perpetually deprived of constitutional rights.
This is the unfortunate case of Egypt where people in this modern age continue to be subjected to arbitrary ‘Pharaonic’ laws, and in addition to lack of freedom and constitutional rights have to bear the humility of living in a US client state.
On Sunday, General Abdel-Fattah as-Sisi, who has ruled as ‘president’ since his toppling in 2013 of the only elected government in thousands of years of Egyptian history, announced another three-month extension of the nationwide state of emergency, which curtails all civil liberties and among other measures that trample people’s rights, allows authorities to make arrests and search homes without warrants.
The state of emergency empowers the regime to imprison individuals for any period of time, and for virtually no reason. During emergency, police powers are extended, constitutional rights are suspended, censorship is legalized and habeas corpus is abolished. The emergency permits indefinite detention without trial and hearings of civilians by military courts, prohibits gatherings of more than five people, and limits speech and association.
For most Egyptian people, these cruel measures seem to be ‘fait accompli’. Except for the brief year-long period of independence from foreign powers under the popularly elected Muslim Brotherhood government, they had never known freedom and constitutional rights.
Even the constitution drafted by the military rulers, General Najeeb and Colonel Nasser, after their overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy in 1952, was suspended at will, mostly because of fear of the well-organized Muslim Brotherhood winning the elections – the same fear that haunts Abdul-Fattah as-Sisi today.
It should be recalled that an emergency law was first enacted in Egypt in 1958 that allowed President Nasser to promote his cultish image at home and abroad by clamping down heavily on pro-Islamic parties.
The next state of emergency that was declared in 1967 during the war against Israel was long and lasted until 1980, almost throughout the rule of Anwar Sadaat, the person who sold Egypt to the Zionists.
On the revolutionary execution of Sadaat by Martyr Khalid Islamboli during a military parade in October 1981, it was re-imposed by Air Marshal Hosni Mubrak who assumed the presidency and ruled as dictator for the next thirty years by punctually extending the state of emergency every three years.
As a matter of fact, the continuous state of emergency was one of the grievances of demonstrators that exploded into the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.
For the moment, Abdel-Fattah and his emergency powers, are applauded by the US, Western Europe, the illegal Zionist entity, and the rootless reactionary Arab regimes (Saudi Arabia and the UAE in particular), since such a situation keeps the Egyptian people and their Islamic aspirations in chain.
The situation cannot continue for long and sooner or later, the Egyptian Muslim people have to make the revolutionary decision about the fate of their country and their future generations, but with precise planning, as it happened in Iran over forty years ago for permanent transformation, and not the turbulent haphazard events of 2012 and 2013 in Egypt.