By Wahid, Laila, Nader and Sameh Wahba
On June 30, 2012, democratically elected Mohamed Morsi won the election by a razor thin margin of 50.7% of the vote, took the oath, and was sworn in as president of Egypt.
The first five months of his term he made almost no decisions (except for some dubious presidential pardons to a few convicted terrorists, including some convicted for their part in the assassination of president Sadat, and issued pardons to a number of convicted criminals and drug dealers.
Suddenly, on Nov. 21, 2012, and despite his razor-thin victory margin, President Morsi issued a presidential decree giving himself sweeping powers, to the extent that his future decrees become un-contestable in any court, beyond all judicial review and in effect his decisions are akin to the word of God.
Nationwide protests erupt as a result of this decree and 1.5 million Egyptians organize a sit-in at the Itihadeya, where the presidential palace stands and peacefully request he rescind his presidential decrees.
Some of Morsi’s hard line Muslim Brotherhood supporters attacked the peaceful sit-in outside Itihadeya with guns and shot five peaceful protesters dead.
A few weeks later, demonstrators of the Muslim Brotherhood surrounded the Supreme Court, preventing the justices from convening so as to prevent any judicial review of the president’s decisions. Instead of protecting the judiciary, Morsi dissolves the Supreme Court and labels its members all “traitors to Egypt.”
One week later, Morsi fires the Egyptian Attorney General and personally appoints a Moslem Brotherhood Attorney to replace him without going through the Constitutional due process.
A month later, he annuls the Egyptian Constitution and forms a “constitutional committee” to draft a new constitution in four days, (the committee is composed primarily of Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists who are even more radical than the Muslim Brotherhood) In a referendum not supervised by any judicial branch (as judges all over Egypt boycotted the process), this constitution narrowly wins, and President Morsi ratifies it the very next morning (despite it having only receiving the approval of 18% of all Egyptians).
Within a month, he invites top global terrorists, known jihadists and al-Qaeda members, from all over the world, to a rally in Rabaa Adaweya, a four-cornered street that has a mosque.
Throughout this whole time, the Egyptian economy is sinking, the stock market collapses, foreign investment has dwindled, tourism has died, and electricity, fuel, and water shortages are a daily turmoil.
Unemployment has almost doubled, and the Egyptian pound has lost over 20 percent of its value globally.
Oh, and President Morsi also outlines his new plans to lease the Sinai to Hamas, the well-known terrorist group (with full administrative control).
With only 0.7% majority, democratically elected President Morsi has done all the above in his FIRST YEAR IN OFFICE!!!
Ultimately, on June 30, 2013, 30 million Egyptians take to the streets all over Egypt to peacefully and politely demand – for four straight days – that democratically elected President Morsi leave office immediately, and that he not serve his remaining three years.
Instead of listening to the people, President Morsi goes on TV during prime time hours and threatens the nation with veiled and not-so-veiled threats.
To protect the 30 million Egyptians, the Minister of Defense, General Abdel Fattah el Sisi and other top Egyptian leaders ask Morsi to step down, and because Parliament was dissolved earlier this year due to the unconstitutionality of its election, the country is turned over to the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
“Democratically” elected President Morsi, was fired by the 30 million Egyptians who protested.
Well, in response to this, 100,000 Muslim Brotherhood and pro Morsi protestors, decided to camp for six weeks on vital streets allowing no traffic to go through, making the already congested Cairo traffic intolerable. People could not access their homes without being harassed and body searched and could not get to shops or work.
Over and above the sit-in Muslim Brotherhood set up their own shops, toilets, bakeries and other facilities in the middle of the street. They had a podium set up with loudspeakers blaring and encouraging violence and burning, all the time carrying al-Qaeda flag, and a few Egyptians flags. Most of the people at the sit-in, really believed that they were defending Islam by burning churches, homes, government offices, police stations and private property, especially parked civilian cars. The Muslim Brotherhood threatened to retaliate if the government tried to disperse the sit-ins.
The Muslim Brotherhood refused to integrate and there were dozens of “no-go” zones within major Egyptian cities across the country that the police force dared not intrude upon: the biggest sit in being Rabaa Al Adaweya and Al Nahda. Sharia law prevailed there, because the Muslim community in those areas refused to acknowledge Egyptian law.
The military started asking the pro Morsi protestors to leave peacefully, throwing Egyptian flags from military choppers, throwing tracts asking them to leave peacefully, giving them a deadline. But all the time, the Muslim Brotherhood and pro Morsi protestors, built more barricades, brought in more weapons and artillery and transformed Rabaa Al Adaweya and Al Nahda into a war zone.
Bloodshed is never a good solution, because violence breeds violence, but the Muslim Brotherhood had been warned and given deadlines.
Security forces used tear gas and water to disperse the sit-ins, but were met by gunshots, burning of cars and vandalism, so they had no choice but to retaliate.
On the other hand, thousands of sit-in protestors were given the option to leave peacefully, which they did and it was majestic to see the self-control exerted by the Egyptian security forces. It is hard to understand how other countries have the nerve to say that Egypt doesn’t have the right to stop dangerous demonstrations that are loaded with weapons and criminals? Is Egypt supposed to leave a group of people to kill and terrorize others and say that this is their so-called right for freedom of speech? How about our right for freedom of walking safely on the streets, and living normally? Since when is freedom a license to harms others?
The vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. The fact is that the Muslim Brotherhood ruled Egypt at this point in history; it is the Muslim Brotherhood who marched, the Muslim Brotherhood who waged wars.
It is the Muslim Brotherhood who systematically slaughters Christians, burn churches, monasteries, Christian organizations and Christian schools. It is the Muslim Brotherhood who bomb, behead and murder, anyone who disagrees with them or with their explanation of Islam. It is the Muslim Brotherhood who takes over mosque after mosque. It is the Muslim Brotherhood who teaches their young to kill and used them as human shields during the Rabaa Al Adaweya sit-in. It is the Muslim Brotherhood who, even though say a woman’s place is at home, used their women as human shields during the sit-ins.
Dear friends living around the world please don’t believe all what the global media says. We have been living in this country our whole lives. We have gone through the whole phase of Morsi’s regime and have witnessed first-hand what his supporters have done and are capable of doing. The people of Egypt have spoken; we do not want terrorists to rule this country. We do not want them to terrorize any of our people again.
The writers are leaders in the Christian community in Cairo. However, they are now in Atlanta due to the troubles. In addition to working with Saddleback on publishing Purpose Driven materials in Arabic, they also work with Walk Thru the Bible. They have their own organization called Middle East Leadership Training Institute (MELTI) (http://pc-egypt.org/rbta/en/?p=277 ) and their Mission Statement is: Affecting Life Change – Where changing lives through God’s Word is our focus, not just the teaching the material.
