(Arabic here) New Delhi, 27 July 2013: The All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations, today condemned the unprovoked murderous attack this morning by the Egyptian army on unarmed and peaceful protesters in Cairo’s Rabia Adawiya square and in Alexandria.
Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, President of AIMMM, said in a statement here that the Egyptian army is exposing the country to a civil war by its continuous attacks on unarmed and peaceful protesters, killing around 300 and wounding thousands since its coup d’etat on 3 July overthrowing a legally elected President and his government.
Dr Khan said the coup was totally illegitimate from day one as a democratically elected President and his government can only be replaced by a fresh election. Any other means to change people’s mandate is illegal and tantamount to high treason. The Egyptian army has a long history of trampling upon people and ruling Egypt through a state of emergency. Some defeated Egyptian political leaders, some small opposition parties and a few civil society figures supporting the army in this illegal attempt to unseat a legally elected President and his government and usurp power are playing with fire and exposing their country to a long civil war on the lines of Algeria where the violent reaction against a similar crime to undo a popular mandate in 1991 is yet to die down and has cost that country close to one hundred thousand innocent lives.
Dr Khan appealed to the leaders of the Egyptian coup and their civilian supporters to back down and return to the barracks before their country actually falls into the abyss of a civil war. The elected leader should be reinstated in his post forthwith and a dialogue should start immediately on political and electoral reforms.
Dr Khan said, in a democracy a majority should take along the minority while the minority should learn to respect the people’s mandate. Disruption of the democratic process by inviting the army and foreign powers to arbitrate and to exclude the majority by force of arms will only kill democracy and push the country into the dark tunnel of a military dictatorship for decades.
Dr Khan appealed to the US, other western countries and India to scale down relations with the Egyptian putschist leaders and force them to return the status quo ante without preconditions. Democracy has no other meaning but to respect the outcome of the ballot box. Mere resumption of the democratic process is a farce if the previous popular mandate has been undone illegally.
دهلى الجديدة – 27 يوليو 2013: ندد مجلس المشاورة الإسلامي لعموم الهند – اتحاد المنظمات الإسلامية الهندية – بالهجوم الدموي القاتل الذي نفذه الجيش المصري صباح اليوم ضد متظاهرين عزل آمنين بميدان رابعة العدوية بالقاهرة وبالإسكندرية.